India should implement policy for International migration: GFMD

The National Consultation meet on Global Forum on Migration and Development (GFMD) has suggested that India implement a policy for international migration.

It also wants the nation to negotiate for wider avenues for legal cross border migration and address the issue of human trafficking, at the four-day GFMD meet which gets underway at Athens from today.

"Migration, especially that of labour within and beyond nation, has historical, social, cultural and economic implications", J Johan, executive director of New Delhi based Centre for Education and Communitation, organisers of last week's meet, told PTI.

He said there was need to build a South Asian perspective on migration, including a visa-free regime and work permit among SAARC countries.

Johan stressed the need to regulate recruting agents, to ensure the security and safety of migrant workers, particularly unskilled workers.

GFMD is a State-led process intended to provide a platform for policy makers to share information, practices and policies regarding migration and development.

The first GFMD meet took place in Belgium in 2007 and the second in Manila in October 27-30 last year.

Johan suggested an inter-governmental system be evolved for the mobility of unskilled workers, for whom there is great demand.

He said some of the largest number of migrants to other parts of the world were from India and cited World Bank records, which said the number of migrants was 10 million in 2005.

"Migration from India includes skilled, semi-skilled and unskilled men and women," he said.

He said India was the largest recipient of worker's remittances, receiving 28 billion US dollars in 2007-08, up from 24.1 billion US dollars in 2005-06.

"Most of these remittances are made not by highly-skilled NRI's in the West, but by unskilled and semi-skilled migrants who comprise the bulk of labour migrating out of India", he said.

"This makes it particularly important to explore the link between migration and development in India", he said.

Problems and issues connected with women migrants also had to be viewed seriously, he said.

Another important matter to be taken care was issues relating to returnee migrants, whose number was increasing as a result of the global financial crisis, he added.