Two senior Officials from the Department of Employment, Mrs. Tara Diallo and Ms. Samia Ally, participated in the Regional Capacity Development Workshop on Ethical Recruitment in the Southern Africa Region organized by IOM, on the 14 to 18 March 2022 at the Kingdom Hotel, Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe.

The capacity development workshop brings together representatives of each Member State in the Southern Africa region and it aligns with the output 2.2. of the SADC Labour Migration Action Plan (2020 – 2025), the decision of the SADC Employment and Labour Sector (ELS) urging SADC Member States to strengthen the mechanisms to combat forced labour and adopt fair and ethical recruitment practices throughout the labour recruitment processes in alignment with a whole of government and whole of society approach.

The relative importance of intra-regional migration in the Southern Africa region has gained grounds within high-level policy discourse in recent times. The significant surge in the number of migrant workers -both skilled and unskilled- in the formal and informal sectors of the economy; private and government undertakings within the region has remained a key policies concern due to the unscrupulous activities of recruiters, increasing rates of labour exploitation and limited assistance framework to ensure the protection of the rights of migrant workers. Labour migration in the region is characterized by highly organized recruitment systems established by private sector operators who are sometimes supported by governments through bilateral labour agreements (BLA).

IOM works with governments and civil society organizations to advance understanding of migration issues, including to develop their awareness and capacity on ethical recruitment. The overall objective of the Southern Africa Migration Management (SAMM) project is to improve migration management in Southern Africa and the Indian Ocean region and thereby contribute to the realization of the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) 8 and 10 that deal with Decent work, Economic growth and Reducing inequalities, respectively.

The benefits of the workshop for the Seychelles participants is a further boost in capacity building with regards to the synergies and coordination for the protection of migrant workers by ensuring that fair and ethical recruitment strategies are respected in their current line of work.