Empowerment and Rights of Migrants

Over the past 15 years, states in the southern border region of Mexico have become important transit areas for hundreds of thousands of migrants.  These on-the-move populations face extreme hardship and physical insecurity as they travel under inhumane and unsafe conditions, with limited access to basic shelter and essential social services. Moreover, on their journey northwards many of these migrants fall victim to organized criminal groups that prey on their vulnerable situation.

The Government of Nigeria has formally adopted a National Policy on Migration and its Implementation Plan in 2015, with support from IOM and the European Union (EU). The policy and its implementation plan provide an appropriate legal framework for monitoring and regulating internal and international migration, and proper collection and dissemination of migration data.

The project aimed at improving the social security benefits for Moldovan migrant workers by enhancing the capacity of the Moldovan government in negotiating, adopting, and implementing bilateral social security agreements with major destination countries of Moldovan migrant workers. The project contributes to improving the impact of migration on development and on poverty reduction by ensuring the right of social security for the Moldovan migrant workers and their families.

The Dominican Republic, under President Danilo Medina, has launched the most ambitious initiative in the history of the country with respect to the documentation and normalization of the entire population living in the country. To achieve this, two mechanisms have been established: Special Law 169-14, for both people born in Dominican Republic and children of foreign parents with an irregular status, and the National Regularization Plan for Foreigners.

The Inter-ministerial Ad hoc Committee to manage emergency situations concerning refugees in Cameroon was created by President Paul Biya on March 2014 as a response to the massive influx of refugees and displaced people escaping from the sectarian fighting in the Central African Republic as well as those escaping from the armed fighting between Boko Haram and army of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Statistics on the refugee situation in the country put the total number at above 110,000.

Local settlements have been used in Africa, especially Uganda, Tanzania and Sudan, as a response to protracted refugee situations and as an alternative to keeping refugees in camps. In Belize, Uganda and Tanzania, the governments saw refugees as a means to develop underutilized land, and pursued this by allocating land to the refugees. In Tanzania in the 1970s, each family was given a minimum of ten acres of land for farming.

In 1999, UNHCR and the Government of Uganda began to implement a long-term assistance strategy aimed at self-reliance for the Sudanese refugees who have been present in the West Nile region of northern Uganda since 1988.

Ecuador has signed bilateral social security agreements with Chile, Colombia, Spain and Uruguay, as well as Multilateral and Ibero-American conventions on Social Security. Furthermore, the Ecuadorian State has commitments and obligations in this area, product of Community directives for the Andean Community of Nations (CAN).

The Philippines Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) implemented a rule that provides penalty for charging and or collecting placement free from workers seeking employment in countries which have laws that provide the same. The No placement fee policy is a serious administrative offense with a penalty of cancellation of license of the concerned recruitment agencies. The same administrative rule penalized that act of charging of excessive placement fees.

Provide future newcomers to Canada with pre-arrival support services to obtain employment, support entrepreneurships and self-employment. Through its services and the numerous partnerships it promotes, IOM supports a number of positive changes that contributes to helping newcomer’s access economic opportunity and financial sustainability. That includes: marketing existing services; providing one-on-one support; tailoring support to specific city and/or area and; facilitating networking and access to financial support.