Hanoi, 22 April 2022 – The International Organization for Migration (IOM) – the UN Migration Agency, in collaboration with the Department of Overseas Labour (DOLAB), organised a training on the application of the Standard Guideline on Public Communication to Raise Awareness of Vietnamese Migrant Workers (hereinafter the Guideline).

The online training welcomed the participation of representatives from the Department of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs (DOLISAs) and Employment Service Centres (ESCs) from 25 provinces across the country.

The Standard Guideline on Public Communication to Raise Awareness of Vietnamese Migrant Workers is part of the collaborative effort between IOM and DOLAB to promote safe labour migration and prevent human trafficking. This initiative falls under the scope of the project "Tackling Modern Slavery from Viet Nam: Enhancing behaviour change communication and assistance services", implemented by IOM with support from the UK Government.

After more than two years of disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the overseas labour migration has gradually resumed, with many countries opening their borders again to foreign workers. The development of this guideline is thus timely, as it supports public communications at local level to encourage the making of informed decision for migration and protect vulnerable individuals and communities from the risks of modern slavery and human trafficking.

The guideline introduces practical methods to plan public communication strategies and activities that meet local situation while inducing behaviour change. The behaviour change communication methods are developed based on the experience and lessons learned from IOM's recent campaigns promoting safe migration and preventing human trafficking.

In his opening remarks, Mr. Dang Si Dung, Deputy Director of DOLAB noted that this is a priority activity under the collaboration between DOLAB – the state agency in charge – and IOM, with the aim of promoting safe labour migration. “The guideline is developed for officials at local labour agencies supporting migrant workers, especially those who develop and execute communication plans on labour migration at all levels, officials from provincial and districts DOLISAs and ESCs. The training today introduces the guideline to the localities and welcomes feedback for its improvement and finalisation, before its official application in provinces this May”, said Mr. Dang Si Dung.

“With the reopening of the borders, we expect many Vietnamese workers would try to go overseas. However, as travel and health requirements for international travels changed so frequently and in complicated manner during COVID-19, official and reliable information on safe migration has never been more important. IOM appreciates this opportunity to collaborate with DOLAB to combine the efforts for our joint mission in promoting safe and regular migration, to better protect labour migrants,” said Ms. Doyen Yun, Head of Projects and Partnership, IOM Viet Nam. “We also look forward to receiving valuable feedbacks and suggestions from the provinces to better reflect the specific local context and their needs.”

The guideline is expected to become a handy manual for officials working to support migrant workers at all levels. Once finalised, the guideline will be disseminated to the DOLISAs, ESCs and other related agencies for effective development and implementation of public communication plans, towards the goal of raising awareness for migrant workers, helping them to make informed migration decisions via safe and regular migration pathways.

For more information, please contact Ms. Doyen Yun, Head of Projects and Partnership, IOM Viet Nam. Email: dyun@iom.int.