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Application of migration policy for decent work of migrant workers, phase II - Final evaluation

eval_number:

3481

eval_url:

https://webapps.ilo.org/ievaldiscovery/eval/3481

lessons_learned:

themes:

theme:

Migration

category:

Conditions of work & equality

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comments:

Donors, ILO, Government, Workers and Employers Organizations

challenges:

1. The power equation between the destination (employing) country and the sending country may be biased in favour of the former. As the sending country seeks to send its citizens for work, it has lower negotiating ability than the country offering work. 2. The vested interests, employment agencies in the destination and sending countries, have high influence on the political persons conducting the negotiations, and tend to protect their business interests rather than those of labour.3. Political work is needed to operationalize changes in the sending country bring the recruitment agencies on board to accept changes, for example, to operationalize the Rules on Classification Recruiting Agencies.

success:

The ILO prepared guidelines for adhering to International Labour Standards in the drafting of MOUs, and the Project provided support of one of its senior officers, deputed from the Ministry of Expatriate Welfare and Overseas Employment (MOEWOE) for the negotiations, but this does not suffice to draw a favourable MOU, due to the political nature of the negotiations.

context:

Several preconditions bring about such a result. These include power relationships between the destination and sending countries, the political power of the recruitment agencies in both destination and sending countries, and inherent corruption in recruitment systems.

description:

The extent to which a technical project can be expected to facilitate negotiations in favour of migrant workers may be limited where political power equations between the destination (employing) country and the sending country may be biased in favour of the former.The extent to which a technical project can be expected to facilitate political negotiations may be limited. ILO’s Technical Cooperation Projects (TCPs) aid the government for drafting Memorandum of Understanding between Bangladesh and the destination countries. However, the resulting MOUs may not be as fair or protective for the migrant workers due to the political nature of the negotiations.

administrative_issues:

ILO needs to plan the additional resources, regional and headquarters staff time that may be needed for supporting political negotiations, if at all this is considered work in the domain of a UN technical agency. The ILO could also insist that the government depute senior staff for all capacity building programmes of the ILO, and depute trained staff for MOU negotiations.

url:

https://webapps.ilo.org/ievaldiscovery/lessons/255675

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location:

country:

Bangladesh

region:

Asia and the Pacific

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eval_title:

Application of migration policy for decent work of migrant workers, phase II - Final evaluation