Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram   

State urged to take action on migration policy

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: A seminar on the proposed national migration policy held here on Monday has called upon the Kerala government to hold a State-level consultation with all stakeholders on the policy and submit its recommendations to the Union government without further delay.

The seminar, organised by the Society for Labour and Development, New Delhi, regretted the absence of any significant initiative on the part of the State government to intervene in the formulation of the policy despite a large number of migrant workers in countries across the globe being people from the State.

The exercise for framing the policy had been on at the national level for nearly a year now, but the State government had done little to address the related issues and make its voice heard, the seminar pointed out in its concluding statement.

The seminar felt that the policy must focus specially on the need for a comprehensive legal regime to govern migration for employment. It should cover pre-migration and post-migration challenges of individual migrant workers and lead to the formulation of a transparent and strict emigration policy that prevents fraudulent practices and ensures labour rights and welfare for the migrant workers in the migrating countries.

It should also address the special needs of migrant workers in specific country contexts in which they find themselves and result in formulation of schemes that would protect the income, assets and investments of the migrant labourers.

The seminar pointed out that the pattern of migration was undergoing sharp changes.

It urged all concerned to see the emergence of non-Gulf nations as destinations of skilled and semi-skilled labour as an important change that had come about in recent times, particularly against the backdrop of the experience of some 500 persons from Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Punjab who were taken to the U.S. in 2006, only to be treated as indentured labour.

The seminar was addressed by Debayani, Regional Coordinator, Migrant Forum Asia; V.J. Varghese, Lecturer, Centre for Development Studies (CDS); Rafeeq Ravuther, producer, Pravasa Lokam, Kairali TV; Sister Asha, Regional Animator, CBCI Labour Commission, among others.

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