A three-day IOM training and networking workshop bringing together
30 delegates from employment/manpower agencies from Asian migrant
sending countries and their European counterparts will open in
Manila on 6 February. 
The workshop entitled “Placing Workers in Europe and Ethical
Recruitment: fostering collaboration among employment agencies in
Asia and Europe,” is designed to help Asian recruitment
agencies to collaborate more effectively with European employers
and recruitment agencies specializing in the recruitment of foreign
workers in the healthcare, agriculture, hotel and restaurant
sectors.
The IOM initiative will create a networking forum among recruitment
agencies of migrant sending and receiving countries and will
contribute to improving transparency and bridging information gaps
that currently exist in the overseas labour recruitment market.
A part of the training, which will be attended by delegates from
overseas recruitment agencies from Bangladesh, China, Indonesia,
Nepal, Pakistan, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Vietnam,
will be dedicated to raising awareness among recruiters of the
international and national norms and standards relating to placing
migrant workers aboard.
The workshop is part of a European Commission-funded programme
aimed at developing legal migration opportunities from Asia to the
EU as well as enhancing regional dialogue and cooperation in
facilitating managed migration between the two regions while
reducing the flow of irregular migrants.
The workshop is also part of the follow-up to the Colombo Process -
a regional ministerial consultative process involving the labour
ministers of 11 Asian countries. The process shares experiences,
lessons learned and best overseas employment policies and practices
to improve the situation of vulnerable overseas workers.  The
first ministerial consultations were held in Colombo in 2003.
Subsequent consultations took place in Manila (2004) and Bali
(2005).
For further information, please contact
Ricardo Casco
IOM Manila
Email: 
"">rcasco@iom.int
Tel: +63.917-812-2660
or
Nilim Baruah
Head of Labour Migration
Email:
"">nbaruah@iom.int
Tel: + 41 22 717 9472