Vietnamese diplomats learned new skills to boost the rights of women migrant workers

The training workshop is jointly organized by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and UN Women as part of the programme, "Safe and Fair: Realizing women migrant workers' rights and opportunities in the ASEAN region", within the framework of the global EU-UN Spotlight Initiative to eliminate all forms of violence against women and girls.

In his opening remarks, Mr. Vu Viet Anh, Director General of the Consular Department, Ministry of Foreign Affairs stressed that protecting Vietnamese citizens living abroad is always a top priority of VietNam's migration policy and this is also an important mandate of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs while performing the function of state management of external affais. "This training workshop will help enhance capacity of diplomats who will work at Vietnamese diplomatic missions and consular posts abroad to better protect the rights of migrants, especially women migrant workers who may have experienced violence when working overseas."

Mr Koen Duchateau, Head of Development and Cooperation Section of European Union Delegation in Viet Nam viewed that the implementation of the Safe and Fair programme will contribute to improving Viet Nam's legal framework on migrant workers, including prevention of violence against women migrant workers and human traffkicking. He also highlighted that the workshop is an opportunity for exchanging ideas ands measures in strengthening the response to violence against women migrant workers while they are working abroad.

"While women migrant workers are significantly contributing to the economies of the host countries and their home country, many of them face multiple difficulties and are easily vulnerable to violence, abuse and exploitation at all stages of the migration cycle. Women migrants often don't know where to seek help, services may not be available when or where they need them, or in a language they understand," Ms Melissa Alvarado, Ending Violence against Women Programme Manager of UN Women Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific addressed.

Mr Chang-Hee Lee, Director of International Labour Organization, Viet Nam country office said "When excluded from or unable to access essential services, women migrant workers can become even more vulnerable to labour exploitation and face risk of violence".

Therefore, this training is a golden opportunity to ensure that women migrant workers access quality service providers who treat them with respect and dignity.

The one and half day training covers key concepts of gender, gender-based violence, migration and trafficking as well as protection of Vietnamese citizens living abroad, communications and referral skills on how to respond to survivors of violence against women migrant workers. The main objective of the training is to strengthen the capacity of Vietnamese diplomats who will work at Vietnamese missions and consular posts abroad on providing quality support to the survivors. Their increased capacity in providing supportive responses to women migrant workers and survivors of violence will greatly contribute to securing the rights, safety and dignity of migrant workers, especially women migrant workers, towards promoting the safe and fair migration and effectively managing international migration of Viet Nam.

About the Safe and Fair Programme

Safe and Fair: Realizing women migrant workers' rights and opportunities in ASEAN is part of the Spotlight Initiative to eliminate violence against women and girls, a global, multi-year initiative between the European Union (EU) and the United Nations (UN). Safe and Fair is implemented through a partnership of ILO and UN Women (in collaboration with UNODC) with the overriding objective of ensuring that labour migration is safe and fair for all women in the ASEAN region. The programme implementation period is from 2018 to 2022, for 5 years. For more information: https://spotlightinitiative.org/asia