U.A.E. Minister of Labour meets IOM Director-General

GENEVA: Saqr bin Ghobash Saeed Ghobash, Minister of Labour, has met with William Lacy Swing, Director-General of the International Organisation for Migration. The visit came on the side-lines of Mr. Ghobash s participation at the 103rd session of the International Labour Conference held at the ILO headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland. The meeting reviewed the role of the Abu Dhabi Dialogue in boosting regional cooperation and partnership among participating states, in order to develop and activate the management of temporary labour contracts and highlight the benefits and advantages between temporary employment contracts, business owners and the economic situation amongst labour sending and receiving countries. During the meeting, Ghobash highlighted the importance of IOM s role in the Abu Dhabi Dialogue, specifically in advising labour-sending countries to develop mechanisms that reduce negative practices by some private recruitment agencies which exploit applicants in their homeland and collect huge sums to employ them with temporary labour contracts within labour-receiving countries. For his part, Mr. Swing emphasised the importance of attending the Abu Dhabi Dialogue, expressing the IOM s willingness to contribute to efforts aiming to reduce negative practices that affect workers' migration between labour sending and receiving countries. – Emirates News Agency, WAM