A handbook on how to establish successful
labour migration policies in countries of origin and destination is
launched today on the second day the 14th OSCE Economic Forum in
Prague.

The main objective of the handbook, which has
been jointly produced by the IOM, the ILO and the OSCE, is to
assist States, particularly those in the OSCE area, in their effort
to develop sound labour migration policies and programmes.

It analyzes labour migration policies,
legislation and structures designed to optimize the benefits of
organized labour migration in countries of origin and destination,
drawing from experiences for OSCE participating States and from
other countries. In particular, it discusses issues underlying
labour migration policy, including the protection of migrant
workers, benefits of organized labour migration, effective
administration of labour migration, foreign labour admission
policies, post-admission policies, irregular labour migration and
inter-state co-operation.

"The handbook is the first of its kind," says
Nilim Baruah, IOM's Head of Labour Migration Division. "It is
primarily intended for decision makers and labour migration
practitioners in the OSCE area and in countries covered by IOM and
the ILO.

Of the estimated 191 million migrants
worldwide, more than 86 million are thought to be labour migrants.
In the future, movement of international labour is expected to
increase even more, making management of migration flows
crucial.

The OSCE membership includes two traditional
countries of immigration, Canada and the United States, both of
which operate systems of employment-based immigration. It also
includes the whole of the European Union (EU) and all OSCE
participating States to the east of the EU are Members of the
Council of Europe, which has developed its own approach to
migration, including the adoption of a number of multilateral legal
instruments aimed at regulating the lawful movement of migrant
workers within the region and guaranteeing their fair
treatment.

Another region, which is rapidly gaining in
importance as far as labour migration is concerned, is the
Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). The largest country in
this region, the Russian Federation, is home to the second largest
number of migrants after the United States; Ukraine is fourth after
Germany and Kazakhstan is ninth. Moreover, CIS countries are among
the top ten countries of origin in the world. Finally, labour
migration in the Balkans is also moving up the political
agenda.

For further information, please contact:

Nilim Baruah

Tel + 41 797837924

Email "mailto:nbaruah@iom.int" target="_blank" title=
"">nbaruah@iom.int

OSCE Press Officer Susanna Loof

Tel +43 664 859 08 10

Email "mailto:susanna.loof@osce.org" target="_blank" title=
"">susanna.loof@osce.org.

The handbook is available online at "paragraph-link-underlined" href="http://www.osce.org/" target=
"_blank" title="">http://www.osce.org/