Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Republic of Burundi
Committed to the process of sustainable socio-economic development, Burundi is in the process of regulating the labor migration movements through a legal framework with the destination countries with the aim of making them more secure and coordinated. It is with that in mind that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Development Cooperation held a coordination meeting for the Development of Standard Operating Procedures on the ethical recruitment process in Burundi from November 2 to 3, 2023, in the political capital of Gitega in order to deliberate together and adopt an advisory committee for that process. It was a multi-sectoral meeting made up of participants who came from the different Institutions involved in the ethical recruitment process in Burundi.
In her opening speech, the Acting Director General of the General Directorate of Diaspora, Promotion of Migrant Employment and Foreign NGOs and ASBL at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Development Cooperation Madame Domitille Ndikuriyo, Director of the Promotion of Migrant Employment, thanked all participants for responding to the invitation to this meeting which allowed the exchange of ideas in order to facilitate the regulation of the ethical recruitment process in Burundi. She also thanked the International Organization for Migration (IOM), the partner of the Government of Burundi which financed that activity and which continues to support the Government throughout the labor migration process.
The Director General a.i. indicated that in Burundi, the monitoring of internal recruitment is often neglected, and that that of external recruitment has not yet been reinforced. She finds it essential to strengthen the existing directives with regard to enforcement and monitoring mechanisms, including the administrative, legal and regulatory pillars which are essential to the implementation of the effective recruitment practices and that for the adequate protection of the workers’ rights.
Mrs. Domitille Ndikuriyo therefore told the participants that that was an opportunity offered to them to set up a coordination mechanism to regulate the recruitment process of the migrant workers, whether internal the movements or external movements. She added that the advisory committee that would be set up during the meeting would allow the consultant to develop a consistent document with the reality and context of Burundi in labor migration. She also added that it is that same committee that will be responsible in coordinating and monitoring the entire process, through the regular coordination meetings.
In her special remarks, the Coordinator of Migration Management at the International Organization of the Migrants Madame Mireille Mugisha was delighted to have once again organized a coordination meeting intended to set up a collaboration mechanism on the recruitment of the migrant workers notably through the establishment of the standard operating procedures on ethical recruitment.
She supported the Acting Director by briefly speaking about the management of the meeting, saying that it goes straight in the direction of making the IOM’s contribution to improving the conditions of labor migration, by following a well-defined framework to guide the Government and Private Recruitment Agencies as well as other players in the field.
After the opening words, the presentations from the Acting Director General and the Migration Management Coordinator followed.
In their presentations, the Acting Director General of the General Directorate of Diaspora, Promotion of Migrant Employment and Foreign NGOs and ASBLs at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Development Cooperation Madame Domitille Ndikuriyo, and the Coordinator of Migration Management at the International Organization of Migrants Madame Mireille Mugisha spoke on the general overview and the situation of migrants and the challenges already encountered: the Government of Burundi does not yet have statistics of job seekers and has not yet identified and assessed the existing capacities and their training needs; lack of electronic platform for collecting and managing labor migration data and lack of national labor migration policy.
The second day of November 3, 2023 was characterized by the works in groups and the discussion on that work. After sharing the group’s work, the proposal and validation by the monitoring committee closed the meeting’s activities.
Before closing the meeting, some recommendations were raised during the meeting: Deeply build the capacity of candidates for recruitment by recruitment agencies before they leave for work; strengthen the capacities of staff responsible for processing files from Public Recruitment Agencies; facilitate the rapid processing of files from Public Recruitment Agencies; set up a special window for choosing workers’ travel documents; designation of agents to monitor the files of migrant workers; updating and adoption of the national labor migration policy; communicate the official list of relay agents (ARB) to the PJ and the MAECD for proper regulation; and raising awareness among the population on recruitment at the municipal level, specifying their duties and commitment in the event of unfounded return.
The participants, especially the Representatives of the Recruitment Agencies, were satisfied with the outcome of the meeting and committed to fighting against any kind of fraud in their work of recruiting workers