As the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) further strengthen their partnership towards ensuring workers’ rights are protected, decent jobs and living wage are as well provided,
The Nigeria Labour Congress has vowed to liaise with Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) to ensure the Federal Government, particularly the Ministry of Labour and Employment, take seriously its statutory responsibilities on the issue of migration governance.
NLC Acting General Secretary, Comrade Bello Ismail, when responding to questions from journalists at a two-day training workshop for Labour Correspondence Association of Nigeria (LACAN), Abuja, organised by ILO in collaboration with NLC, said that labour unions are poised to take serious actions about labour migration issues because a worker anywhere deserve all available labour rights.
NLC also expressed displeasure that Nigeria government is doing little or nothing to contracting effective bilateral agreements with other countries or ratifying many existing conventions on migration (labour migration) that seeks to ease unfavourable conditions of migrant workers, Nigerians in their host countries specifically.
On the reason for the training, Ismail said, “The training is aimed at building synergy with the media in reporting migration issues such as forced labour and unfair recruitment. Migration had remained a major issue of concern across the continent and migrants workers were most vulnerable in the midst of the ravaging COVID-19 pandemic.
“Presently, there are a lot of constraints facing workers in their movement. There are also a lot of constraints facing them wherever they may be, whether in their country of origin or the countries they are migrating to.
“So, our commitment is to work with our partners, the ILO and other stakeholders to ensure that wherever the worker may be, the worker finds that place a conducive place to work and live.
“That’s why we were happy that the ILO is supporting this initiative and we know that there’s nothing we can do without our colleagues from the media who help us propagate some of the ideas around global migration governance. That is, ensuring that the working people wherever they may be are covered by the rights that govern every worker”.
In his remarks, the NLC Migration Officer, Comrade James Eustace said that the training was to ensure that ideas were shared on the best way to tackle the recurring challenges of returning migrants, especially in the period of the COVID-19.
He said that the training would go a long way toward affording the media the opportunity to appreciate the present challenges of migrants. “This is especially as it concerns what labour migrants are facing as well as looking into the future on the reportage of the issues surrounding migration or slave labour.
“We discovered that the reportage of migration issues has not been encouraging and again biased against the migrant worker. This is in terms of protection of the human and labour rights of the migrant worker is not given attention in the media.”
He said that migration, especially in terms of abuse of the migration worker has been in the global space for a long time, and that the irregular migration of Africans, especially Nigerians to the countries of the Gulf had been on the increase.
“Little is being done to ensure that regular pathways are being promoted and provided for migrants to migrate. As a trade union, labour migration is a core trade union issue that cannot just be left to other actors without playing a dominant role.
Dr. Emeka Obiezu, ILO Consultant on Development of Toolkit for Media Reportage on Forced Labour and Fair Recruitment, described a labour migrant as anybody who left the shores of his country to another country for the purpose of finding a job.
Obiezu, while quoting a 2021 ILO report, noted that there were 169 million migrant workers accounting for 59 per cent of the world’s international migration population of 281 million. He also said there was also an estimated 24.9 million people in forced labour around the world.
Speaking on behalf of the trainees, LACAN Chairman, Mr. Michael Oche, commended the NLC and the ILO for organising the training. He went on to say that the training would provide members with better understanding of the issues surrounding labour migration.
Oche called on beneficiaries of the training to imbibe the knowledge they had garnered in their writing and reportage.
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