Labour Minister Utoni Nujoma on Wednesday said Namibia is committed to promoting international migration of labour as it benefits the economy.
During the launch of the National Labour Migration Policy, Nujoma said Namibia is among the first countries in SADC region to heed the request and to develop the policy, as dictated by the SADC Labour Migration Action and Policy Framework.
Nujoma said the initiative is aimed at enhancing the understanding, as well as the management of labour migration, flows to, in and from Namibia.
“This is also in line with Global Compact on Labour Migration which advocates for labour migration management.
The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) which call for global action to eradicate poverty and to save the planet, highlighting the fact that planned and well-managed migration policies can contribute to reduce inequalities and eradicate poverty,” he said.
The Namibian Minister said the Internal Labour Migration aligned with SDGs is aimed at reducing inequalities, achieve well-managed migration policies and remittances.
” I note that the Namibia Migration Profile launched in June 2016 highlighted the absence of critical data on labour migration and that of migration in general as well as the need to strengthen capacity and coordination among line ministries,” he said.
According to Nujoma Namibia has benefited and can benefit further from labour migration, but this potential is not yet being exploited to a large extent.
“In this regard, the country is committed to facilitating orderly, safe, regular and responsible labour migration through the implementation of an integrated national labour migration policy for development,” he said.
