Opinions & Interviews

MINSK, 5 June (BelTA) - Belarus can use the expertise of the EU countries in the legislation on labor migration, Belarus’ Deputy Interior Minister Nikolai Melchenko told the media, BelTA has learned.

The workshop on the actions at legislative and policy levels to be undertaken by Belarus in order to enhance overall labor migration management is running in Minsk on June 5-6. The event has been organized by the International Centre for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD) together with the Interior Ministry of Belarus as part of MIEUX, the joint initiative of the ICMPD and the EU.

Nikolai Melchenko stressed the importance of studying the expertise of the EU countries in the field of legislation on labor migration. “We have studied the expertise and the legal framework of other countries, compared them with the Belarusian laws. Yes, there are certain points as things are a bit different in our country. Still I think we can adopt a lot of things from colleagues and partners from the European Union,” the deputy minister noted.

“In the labor market there is a demand for highly skilled workers. We would like people to come to us and work here. International migration is an economic component, a political one. But is is also security. Being the law enforcement agency we are interested that this should not affect the security of our country,” Nikolai Melchenko noted.

The head of the EU Delegation to Belarus Andrea Wiktorin added that labor migration is the issue which is important both for Belarus and the EU countries. “We view the conventions of the International Labor Organization as the framework necessary to address issues in this area. So I am glad that the Interior Ministry and the National Assembly of Belarus are considering the advisability of accession to these conventions. In the long term this will help guarantee the rights of people who go to work abroad and those who come to work here,” Andrea Wiktorin noted.

The workshop, which is the closing event of the MIEUX program, is dedicated to the analytical report on Belarus’ legislation on external labor migration, the EU legislation in this area, and the approaches to developing a comprehensive national migration policy. Attending the event are representatives of the Interior Ministry of Belarus, the standing commission for international affairs of the House of Representatives of the National Assembly, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Labor and Social Security, the National Center of Legislation and Legal Research, the Federation of Trade Unions, the European Union Delegation, the International Organization for Migration, La Strada Belarus program and employment agencies.

Belarus applied for participation in the MIEUX (MIgration EU eXpertise) in January 2016. The country is not a party to the international conventions on migrant workers and regularly receives recommendations on accession. Belarus’ initiative was based on the need to study foreign expertise in part of defining the role of such treaties and the advisability of accession. The project was launched in October 2016. Since then great work has been accomplished to study the conventions of the International Labor Organization, to conduct the comparative analysis and formulate appropriate recommendations for improvement of Belarus’ legal framework on foreign labor migration.