International Organization for Migration (IOM) Director General Ambassador William Lacy Swing commended Sri Lanka on its dynamism and perseverance as the Chair of the Colombo Process (CP).
The Chair has led to numerous achievements, and steered the CP to a progressive path and to a very good future, he said
Ambassador Swing commended Nepal as well for taking up the leadership of the process and added that the IOM stood ready to continue supporting the Chair of the CP. Ambassador Swing made these observations on the occasion of the transfer of the Chair of the CP, from the Government of Sri Lanka to the Government of Nepal, during a meeting held at the IOM Headquarters in Geneva last week.
Sri Lanka assumed the CP Chair for a second time in October 2013 and developed a ‘road map’ to strengthen engagement between CP Member States and countries of destination under the overall theme “International Labour Migration for Prosperity: Adding Value by Working Together”.
Initially 5 thematic areas were identified and working groups comprising experts in each considered pragmatic ways and means on how to: promote skills qualification and recognition; foster ethical recruitment; promote pre-departure orientation and empowerment with an additional focus on migration and health; reduce the costs of remittances transfer; and track labour market trends.
In August 2016 at the 5th Ministerial Meeting in Colombo led by CP Chair-in-Office Foreign Employment Minister Talatha Atukorale, the CP expanded its scope by adding four more thematic areas: enhancing consular support for migrant workers; promoting migrant health; operationalising the migration-related goals in the SDGs; and promoting equality of women migrant workers.
The period also saw an expansion in the CP membership, and the strengthening of relations with other migration related Processes and Partners, including the Abu Dhabi Dialogue (ADD), the European Union (EU), the Global Forum on Migration and Development (GFMD) and the Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights of Migrants.
During Sri Lanka’s stewardship, the CP strengthened the institution building process by operationalising a self-funding mechanism and formalised the engagement among Geneva-based CP Member States to facilitate regular dialogue and work during inter-sessional periods between Senior Officials and Ministerial Meetings (SOMs).
Speaking on the occasion as the Chair of the Geneva-based CP operational platform, Sri Lanka’s Permanent Representative to the UN in Geneva Ambassador Ravinatha Aryasinha said the CP countries in most instances being competitors were beyond the capacity of leveraging as a Group over the past three and half years.
Sri Lanka had sought to build an overarching institutional architecture, to overcome the conventional wisdom. Detailing the tangibles achieved in this period, the Ambassador said Sri Lanka can look back with satisfaction to this period of stewardship, confident that it sought to tackle some of the most pressing issues faced by labour migrants of CP Member States; put in place some of the best practices to mitigate and overcome their problems; developed some of the most vital linkages between the sources of supply and demand; and strengthened both institutional and financial capacity for the CP to be better prepared for the future.
Thanking all parties that helped in ensuring the success of Sri Lanka’s period as Chair and assuring Nepal Sri Lanka’s support as the CP Chair, Ambassador Aryasinha said Sri Lanka’s Foreign Employment Minister Talatha Atukorale recently assumed the Chair of the larger migration platform of Asia – the Abu Dhabi Dialogue (ADD) which brings together both migrant labour sending and receiving countries, “will no doubt be a matter of re-assurance to Member States of the CP, that Sri Lanka will continue to work for the welfare of the Asian migrant workforce with even greater vigour”.
Speaking as the incoming CP Chair, Ambassador Deepak Dhital, Nepal’s Permanent Representative in Geneva, noted Nepal’s gratitude to Sri Lanka for its outstanding leadership, and said Nepal is honoured to have the opportunity to now serve as the CP Chair. Appreciating the progress and recent achievements of the CP, Ambassador Dhital stressed the importance of moving forward further action based on consensus of the CP member states.
The handing over ceremony was attended by Ambassadors and representatives from the Colombo Process Member States in Geneva. The representatives of the IOM Headquarters, and Regional Office in Asia, and the Swiss Development Cooperation (SDC) and members of the Sri Lanka Mission in Geneva participated.
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