By Dinah Kakai.
Hon. Minister of Gender, Labour and Social Development Betty Amongi Akena holds Bilateral meetings with Ministers of Labour of Qatar and Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to discuss signing of BLA with Qatar, and implementing existing BLA with KSA
The Minister who is attending the 5th Islamic Conference of Labour Ministers in Baku, Azerbaijan has emphasised the urgent need for countries of OIC to put in place measures to ensure safe migration of Labour, and strick respect of human rights of migrant workers. She has called for enforcement and monitoring of housemaids working in private homes since accessing them by embassies when in distress is proving very difficult due to diplomatic procedures required.
The Ministers of Labour are meeting to discuss how to make Labour migration safe, among other issues.
During the side meetings, Qatar invited the Minister for signing the BLA on 3rd-5th March, 2024, while KSA agreed to have a joint technical committee to meet and iron out the issues raised by the Minister. The Minister of Labour and Social Protection of Azerbaijan called on states to establish a one stop centre to handle Labour disputes, including establishing a call centre to handle issues of children’s abuse, GBV, Labour complaints etc emphasising that it has worked well in Azerbaijan.
