Organised with support from the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES), the two-day meeting deliberated on issues affecting African migrants and emerged with strategies to lobby governments to ensure that migration on the continent was undertaken on a voluntary basis.

The trade unions which met comprised continental and regional bodies under the platform of the African Trade Union Migration Network (ATUMNET).

Policies

At a press briefing following the meeting, a member of the Trades Union Congress (TUC) Ghana, Mr Kennedy Achakoma, said participants were expected to work closely with governmental agencies to strengthen policies and ensure that workers lived in sound democracies that considered their welfare.

That, he said, would ensure that migration on the continent was undertaken on a voluntary basis and not because workers were pushed out in search of greener pastures as a result of bad policies and unbearable socio-economic conditions.

He urged would-be migrants to use approved channels when migrating and lauded security personnel at the Kotoka International Airport (KIA) for halting the suspicious migration of under-aged children.

Mr Achakoma said while there were registered labour agencies in most African countries overseeing departure of migrants, the situation was non-existent in the receiving countries, particularly, in the Gulf coordinating countries.

Pre-information

Mr Achakoma commended the Ghana TUC for its pre-information departure guide for migrants which was put together with support from the FES and called for the material to be reviewed and replicated in other countries.

The Coordinator of Human and Trade Union Rights of the ITUC, Mr Jeol Akhator Odigie, said the European Unions’ border externalisation policies were against the rights of refugees as captured under United Nations (UN) principles.

“The European Unions’ border externalisation policies require refugees or asylum seekers fleeing their country of origin to begin application for asylum in the countries they are fleeing from,” he explained.