Pathways for Regular Migration

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) and Ghana Immigration Service (GIS) have begun construction of a Migration Consultation Centre (MCC) in Sunyani. The construction is part of a larger information campaign to promote safe and legal migration under IOM’s Ghana Integrated Migration Management Approach (GIMMA) project, funded by the European Union (EU). The MCC aims to facilitate and empower migrants to travel in a legal, voluntary, orderly and protected way.

For the first time since independence in 1957, the Government of Ghana has formulated a National Migration Policy (NMP) to help manage its internal and international migration flows in the context of national development as well as sub-regional, regional and global interests. The Government of Ghana formally approved it in April 2015, policy which was developed with support from IOM Ghana and the IOM Development Fund (IDF).

In his report to the 2014 International Labour Conference, the ILO Director-General called for an ILO Agenda for Fair Migration and emphasised the growing concern about abusive and fraudulent recruitment practices affecting migrant workers.

In response to those challenges, in 2014 the ILO launched a global “Fair Recruitment Initiative” to:

• help prevent human trafficking and forced labour

As is known, there has been a huge Syrian flow to Turkey since April, 2011; due to the internal conflict in Syria. By the end of 2014 there are approximately 1 million 700 thousand Syrians living in or out of camps/shelters in our country. As the civil war extended and suitable conditions does not exist to return to Syria; it is crucial to provide them legal entrance into labour market to earn livelihood in order to keep the social peace remain.



Within this scope, two types of work permit applications can be made:

In January 2015, work permits and quotas for work permits for foreign nationals from visa-free countries were cancelled, and replaced with a visa-free system that requires these employees to obtain licenses before they take up employment with companies, individual entrepreneurs, lawyers or notaries. The benefits for employers of this new licensing system are significant reductions in the bureaucracy involved in issuing work permit quotas to foreign workers, as well as in the number of irregular migrants.

As Nicaraguan labor migrants have consolidated in specific economic niches, and as immigration levels have stabilized, the Costa Rican government has shifted its focus from enforcement to integration. Passage of the General Law on Migration and Foreigners in 2010 and subsequent executive decrees in 2011-13 have constituted the most recent steps toward creating a comprehensive policy framework on immigration, together with a action plan.

The new Moroccan migration policy is based on humanitarian considerations and promotes integration and access to the healthcare system, education, housing, employment, and other services. It considers migration as an opportunity rather than a social, economic or political threat.

The Global Approach to Migration and Mobility (GAMM) is, since 2005, the overarching framework of the EU external migration and asylum policy. The framework defines how the EU conducts its policy dialogues and cooperation with non-EU countries, based on clearly defined priorities and embedded in the EU’s overall external action, including development cooperation.

The Economic Community Of West African States (ECOWAS) is a regional group of fifteen countries, founded in 1975. Its mission is to promote economic integration in "all fields of economic activity, particularly industry, transport, telecommunications, energy, agriculture, natural resources, commerce, monetary and financial questions, social and cultural matters .....".

ECOWAS has introduced the ECOWAS Passport and APEC has put in place an APEC-visa for certain categories of people to facilitate their movement in these groupings' member States. 

The Information and Communications Technology Council (ICTC) has instigated a pilot bridging program, ‘Coaching to Career’, which launched in May 2012 in Toronto.