On  28 September 2018, the Institute for Labor Studies, headed by Acting Executive Director Ahmma Charisma Lobrin Satumba, met with Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) Director Levinson Alcantara, along with the Department of Labor and Employment-International Labor Affairs Bureau (DOLE-ILAB) on the development of a public campaign on Safe Migration in ASEAN. The inter-agency meeting aimed to produce audio-visual materials and other technical inputs for the said campaign.

The undertaking is in relation to the Philippine commitment for the said campaign under the auspices of the ASEAN Committee on Migrant Workers (ACMW). The project, which will be funded by Enhanced Regional EU-ASEAN Dialogue Instrument (EU- READI), seeks to develop audio visual materials that will provide potential migrant workers with key information about labor migration, including pre-employment requirements, and country of destination information, as well as the risks associated with working overseas.

The Philippine output is expected to be ready for launching by early part of 2019. ILAB is communicating with the ASEAN Secretariat on the specific requirements of the project POEA had already submitted the concept note of this project to the ASEAN Secretariat. The Institute, given its expertise and experience, is enjoined in contributing inputs for the documentation.

The said meeting also tackled the updates on the 1) 2018 ILS working paper on the proposed framework for Monitoring and Evaluation of Bilateral Labor Agreements; 2) Labor Market Assessment Workshop; 3) deployment schemes by United Kingdom, Australia, Netherlands, and Japan as they affect Filipino workers.

The Institute for Labor Studies is the policy and research arm of the Department of Labor and Employment. For more information about ILS products and services, please visit: http//ils.dole.gov.ph or call Advocacy and Publication Division at Tel. No. 527-3590