Foreign Ministry's officials trained on handling women migrant workers’s protection

On Octocber 15, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs cooperated with UN Women and International Labour Organization (ILO) Vietnam to organize a training workshop for 50 Vietnamese diplomats on delivering coordinated quality services to women migrant workers subject to violence.

This is the second time the training workshop for Diplomats has been organized under the program Safe and Fair: Realizing women migrant workers' rights and opportunities in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) region, a part of the Spotlight Initiative to eliminate violence against women and girls.

At the training workshop. Photo: UN Women/Tran Linh

In his opening remark, Deputy Director General of the MoFA’s Department of Consular Affairs Do Hoang Tung said it is an important capacity-building event that helps enhance the effectiveness of the protection of Vietnamese citizens overseas, particularly vulnerable people like women migrant workers.

Protection of the legitimate rights and interests of migrants is the primary goal and priority in Vietnam's international migration management policy, which was underscored in the country’s implementation plan for the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration (GCM), he said.

Elisa Fernandez Saenz, Representative of UN Women Vietnam said that the workshop will provide all necessary information about the risks of violence, abuse, the role of women as well as barriers to them when accessing to support services, thereby helping diplomats - the first responders to fulfill their challenging tasks in serving citizens.

Safe and Fair: Realizing women migrant workers’ rights and opportunities in the ASEAN region is part of the Spotlight Initiative to eliminate violence against women and girls, a global, multi-year initiative between the European Union (EU) and the United Nations (UN).

Safe and Fair is implemented through a partnership between the ILO and UN Women (in collaboration with UNODC) with the overriding objective of ensuring that labour migration is safe and fair for all women in the ASEAN region.

Migration can be beneficial for all actors involved. Migrant women are able to access higher paid jobs, whilst increasing their agency and improving their position in the family and community. It is estimated that USD 63.9 Billion were received in remittances in Southeast Asia in 2016. It is estimated that women’s remittances can make up half of this.

The programme aims to strengthen labour migration governance and address risks inherent in migration systems that can result in violence and trafficking, strengthen rights-based and gender-responsive approaches to violence against women and labour migration governance and support access to essential services.

Protection of the legitimate rights and interests of migrants is the primary goal and priority in Vietnam's international migration management policy.

In March 2020, the Prime Minister of Vietnam issued the Decision No. 402/QD-TTg on the National plan to implement the Global Compact of Safe, Regular and Orderly Migration with five key areas.

In the area on communication and information dissemination, safe migration for women is an important topic especially there has been increasing number of Vietnamese women migrating to work abroad. While labour migration offers opportunity for women to obtain economic independence and empowerment, there are also many women still experiencing disadvantages and gendered barriers in their migration journeys. Many of these disadvantages and barriers can be addressed with women’s better access to information on different aspects of employment opportunities, information about workers’ rights, and their increased awareness and skills on prevention of frauds, violence and exploitation. Creative and well-targeted communication activities, prioritizing women and children are highlighted in Vietnam’s Implementation Plan of GCM.

Phuong Minh