THAMM Nicolle Disc Paper Final Draft 02072021 Cleared.docx

in terms of forced labour, child labour and modern slavery? And how can THAMM contribute to promoting a decent work agenda? Aurelia Segatti : With major increases in levels of unemployment and large numbers of SMEs simply disappearing from labour markets in North Africa, it is clear that as soon as borders will reopen completely, the underground economies of passage, which were thriving before the crisis but had somehow slowed down their activity slightly since 2015, will see an upsurge in candidates for irregular migration. It is therefore all the more important that pilot programmes, such as THAMM, help strengthen legal pathways through the modernization of policy, legislative and regulatory frameworks, and the professionalization of public employment services for international placement. This is what we do with ANAPEC in Morocco, with ANETI and the DGPEMOE in Tunisia, and with the Ministry of Manpower in Egypt. However, the outstanding question is how to move from pilot projects to larger scale long-term mechanisms. And this is a little beyond THAMM. The Fair Recruitment approach of the ILO and the IRIS recruitment system of the IOM both propose a different way of envisaging recruitment and placement abroad. Grounded in international labour standards, Fair Recruitment and IRIS offer general principles and operational guidelines and tools, which can serve as the starting point for renewed national strategies, placing migrant workers centre-stage in terms of protection throughout the migration cycle. While Fair Recruitment is already well known in Tunisia and has largely shaped the new National Strategy for International Placement whose development was supported by THAMM, it is still new in Morocco and Egypt where it is beginning to be rolled out through sensitization and training of relevant national partners. Tanja Dedovic : Being in an irregular situation or forced to take up employment in the informal sector because of their irregular status makes them prone to exploitation and abuse because they have not much choice between no job and no income or taking any job, no matter what the daily wage will be - a job without any rights and no social protection whatsoever.

On the other hand, the COVID-19 pandemic has also highlighted the importance of 'key workers' - many of whom come from Morocco or Tunisia - in the functioning of European economies. How can this situation of co- dependence be turned into a virtuous co-development model? Aurelia Segatti : There is indeed increased realization about this dependency, because it is beginning to be widely documented (see for instance the presentation by Lukas Kleine-Rueschkamp from OECD at the conference). But it is not necessarily fully understood and backed by micro-data on the side of sending countries, nor politically fully grasped yet. There is therefore a need for strategic thinking, diplomatic dialogue, review of bilateral labour and social security agreements, as well as very careful consideration that needs to take place for the question of skills availability in countries of origin. This is what we try to advocate for in several of THAMM components and through the Global Skills Partnership on Migration initiative of the ILO, IOM, IOE and UNESCO (https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/--- ed_emp/--- ifp_skills/documents/publication/wcms_653993.pdf). Tanja Dedovic : Recognizing the criticality of essential workers should lead to their recognition and regularization so that they can (re)enter in the formal economy, increase their contributory capacity and start pay taxes and social security contributions and hence also be able to benefit from the contributions they pay to such systems during a next crisis. Meaning the regularization of informal workers and preventing regular migrant workers from becoming irregular migrant workers could lead to a more robust and resilient economy, being more inclusive and not leaving so many without any protection and access to any services. One of THAMM's objectives is to improve the management of data on labour migration. Why is this so difficult? Why is it so important? Aurelia Segatti : Migration data in general suffer from issues of availability, sensitivity, and a lock of policy demand. And labour migration within this is probably even worse. However, there are now well know methods and resources available to improve not only the quality of

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