Abu Dhabi Dialogue
In 2008, Member States of the Colombo Process and two countries of destination, Malaysia and Singapore, met with Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries and Yemen to discuss practices and policies about temporary contractual labour in Asia. The Abu Dhabi Dialogue (ADD) was then formed and the ADD Declaration adopted to address issues of temporary contractual labour mobility and to optimize labour mobility’s benefits for all participating countries. The second meeting was held in Manila (2012), the third meeting in Kuwait (2014). The Senior Officials’ meeting was held in United Arab Emirates (2016) wherein MFA participated as a panelist particularly on “Examining the Current Recruitment Models in the Asia – GCC Corridors”.
Below is the final ADD Senior Official’s meeting Documents:
- abu-dhabi-dialogue-senior-officials-meeting-final-report
- joint-communique-of-senior-officials-meeting-3
The Abu Dhabi Dialogue is composed of 18 countries. 11 countries of origin: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, China, India, Indonesia, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Vietnam; and seven countries of destination: Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates (UAE), and Yemen. Republic of Korea, Japan and Singapore act as Observer States.
The ADD serves as a platform for countries of origin and destination to discuss the management of temporary contractual labour mobility in Asia. It is an action-oriented dialogue with four main areas for partnerships between Member States:
- Share information on labour market trends, skills profiles, temporary contractual workers and remittances policies and flows
- Harmonize labour supply and demand
- Prevent illegal recruitment and protect migrant workers
- Develop a framework that manages temporary contractual labour and advance the mutual interests of Member States
For more information, you can visit: http://abudhabidialogue.org.ae/