The meeting was held in coordination with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the National Committee for Combating Human Trafficking (NCCHT) at Sheraton Oman Hotel.
At the event, H E Sarmila Parajuli Dhakal, Ambassador of Nepal, briefed about the Colombo Process (CP) and informed invitees about Nepal’s current chairmanship of the process and its theme ‘Safe, regular and managed migration: Win-win for all’.
As per a press release, H E Sarmila shared five thematic areas of action namely skills and qualification recognition process, fostering ethical recruitment, effective predeparture orientation and empowerment, remittances, and labour market analysis.
Additionally, four other thematic areas of action have provided important platforms for the CP countries to cooperate within the region and beyond.
She stressed that all such consultative mechanisms should be made more collective, meaningful, productive and should be properly implemented for safer and secure migration that is equitably beneficial for countries of origin and destination.
First secretary Aisha Sahar Wahid al Kharusi, head of Partnership Initiatives and Cooperation Projects in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA), elaborated on the work done by NCCHT, headed by Sayyid Badr bin Hamed bin Humood al Busaidi, secretary general in MoFA.
NCCHT looks to increase protection for vulnerable parties as well as tackling human trafficking in collaboration with the United Nations Office for Drugs and Crime, Interpol and the International Labor Organisation. She provided a brief about Oman’s Royal Decree on Anti-Trafficking Law 126/2008 and 3Ps of combating human trafficking – prevention, protection and prosecution, and the fourth lesser-known P – partnership.
Counsellor Mohammed bin Ahmad al Rawahi, legal advisor to the Minister of Manpower, explained the various activities of the ministry for the welfare and rights of the labour force as well as its role in developing programmes and systems to assure the best interests of both, the employers and employees.
Rawahi informed about the regular awareness campaign, publication and distribution of guidelines for migrants’ welfare in 14 languages.
Younis al Harrasi, director of Communications at Bayan Tebyan, the agency that manages the campaign’s communications, prepared a brief presentation over the NCCHT’s nationwide campaign ‘Ehsan’ that includes activities designed to help people understand what human trafficking is, how to identify, report and prevent it.