Project to strengthen Tunisian legislation on protection of migrant workers’ rights

Presented at a workshop held Friday in Tunis, the draft action plan to strengthen the Tunisian legislative framework for the protection of the rights of migrant workers emphasises the need to revise laws and regulations to protect the rights of migrant workers.

As part of the Interregional Arab Labour Migration (IRAM) project to improve the governance of labour migration and the protection of the rights of migrant workers in Tunisia, Morocco, Libya and Egypt, the action plan includes mechanisms arising from the recommendations of the seminar held on 11 and 12 February 2016 in Tunis and which brought together the members of the Tripartite Monitoring Committee for the IRAM project, namely the Tunisian Ministry of Social Affairs, The International Labour Organisation (ILO) and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.

These mechanisms are presented in the form of four thematic files, which present a current diagnosis of the Tunisian legislative framework and based on these questions: socio-economic integration of resident Tunisians abroad, protection of domestic workers, role of inspection of labour in the protection of all migrant workers and reform of the provisions relating to the work of foreigners.

These sheets identified the limits and gaps in terms of effective protection of the rights of migrant workers and proposed guidelines for strengthening the legal guarantee of the defence of fundamental rights of migrant workers in accordance with the International standards.

In order to strengthen the integration of Tunisian expatriates in Tunisia, this draft action plan proposes to ratify the conventions of the International Labour Organisation and the United Nations for the protection of all Migrant workers and members of their families.

The same draft action plan also recommends amending Law No. 75-40 of 14 May 1975 on the decriminalisation of the act of crossing borders in a way contrary to the legal procedures and to deepen the examination of gaps and dysfunctions in exchange, investment, incentives and support for initiatives.

It is also necessary to review the tax and customs advantages and investment incentives granted to Tunisian expatriates and adapt them to the new national and international context.

Alaid Trabelsi, Social Affairs Minister’s Chief of Staff said that the mechanisms proposed in this project reflect Tunisia's commitment to enshrine the principle of human rights in terms of governance of Labour migration and to integrate it into national policies and strategies.

For his part, Representative of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Tunisia Dimitri Shaliv stressed that this project is in line with the national will to develop migration legislation and constitutes a common action plan to achieve the recommendations from the Tripartite Seminar.

The IRAM project is implemented by the International Labour Office with the financial support of the Swiss Cooperation.

source: TAP