"Ghanaians can have decent work overseas through bilateral labour MOUs"

The national JOB SUMMIT of April 15 and 16 will be two days dedicated to job creation discussions, with President John Mahama opening the event at the Accra International Conference Center at 9:00am - with heads of all missions and special Guest of Honor Mr. Guy Ryder, Director General of the International Labour Organization (ILO).

The program is being hosted by Hon. Haruna, under the auspices of the Ministry of Employment and Labour Relations. The theme is: ‘ Inclusive Growth Through Creation of Productive Employment and Decent Work’.

Her Excellency Rev. Dr. Ocansey, an award winning job creation expert, and CEO of SOS Labour, Ghana’s first licensed job placement agency, said: ‘This is a great day indeed, we congratulate the Government on this effort. We will now ask the Government to take this a step further in line with ILO’s Fair Migration Agenda, which promotes bilateral agreements for well regulated and fair migration between member states- to facilitate the securing of decent work overseas for Ghanaians.’

She added that: ‘It is time for Ghana to have Labour attaches who can facilitate international decent work creation, welfare and protection of our workers overseas.'

Africans United for Legal Migration led by its President, Samson Selassi Amegatser indicated that the youth are seeking for Transformation through decent jobs in Ghana and overseas. ‘Our youth are humbly petitioning the Government of Ghana to sign labour MOUs to enable us to travel and work in decent jobs safely overseas,’ he said.

Ghanaians overseas remit over $3billion back to Ghana each year, according to the Bank of Ghana. This makes decent work for Ghanaians overseas a crucial ingredient for Ghana’s development.

Director General Guy Ryder, in June 2014 chose the subject of Migration for the ILO Conference, where he presented a paper that called for ‘constructing an agenda for fair migration, which not only represents the fundamental rights of migrant workers but also offers them real opportunities for decent work.’

HE Dr Ocansey drafted the first Ghana Labour MOU with Libya, which was signed by Hon. Mumuni, then Minister of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration in May 2009. This MOU provided a legal framework for Ghanaians to travel legally to work safely in Libya.

‘The Ghana-Libya legal migration framework was designed to build a migration regime which responds equitably to both the interest of Ghana and that of the destination countries, the migrant workers, the employers and nationals,’ said Dr. Ocansey.

‘We used this model framework for our migration pilot which won an award in Kuwait – see video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLiJxr_e1FU - decent work overseas with Labour MOUs can help alleviate much unemployment among our youth, and provide safe migration,’ concluded Dr Ocansey.