India

The Indian government, tasked a High Level Committee on the Indian Diaspora to analyze the location, situation and potential development role of the estimated 20 million non-resident Indians (NRI's) and Persons of Indian Origin (PIO's).

The information resulting from this two-year exercise led to a new direction in diaspora policy, including the creation of a Ministry for Overseas Indian Affairs in 2004.

The UAE Ministry of Labour and India’s Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs signed a protocol to streamline the admission of Indian contract workers by way of an electronic contract registration and validation system.

The objectives of the MOU is to facilitate safe and legal migration by promoting orderly migration of workers from India to meet the growing demand for skilled and trained workers in the Danish economy and to prevent illegal migration and the smuggling of people for financial benefits.



The proposed MOU provides for cooperation between the two countries concerning the branches:

(a) labour market expansion;

(b) employment facilitation;

(c) organized entry and orderly migration, and;

The Colombo Process is a Regional Consultative Process on the management of overseas employment and contractual labour for countries of origins in Asia. According to best estimates, over 2.5 million Asian workers leave their countries every year under contract to work abroad. A large proportion of workers from South and Southeast Asia head for the Gulf States to perform various types of service, trade and construction jobs, while others move to North America, Europe and Asian countries.

A five-year, technical cooperation programme with a targeted approach for the trafficking of women and girls from South Asia. The objective is to reach 100,000 women and girls in major South Asian countries and major destination countries of South Asian workers for an overall reduction of incidences.

This pilot scheme includes specialized employment services and a system for skills testing and certification for main destination countries in Europe. The project objective is to improve governance over circular migration of professionals and highly skilled personnel in the health care sector. This project is funded by the European Commission.