I T A L Y
Statement by H.E. Maurizio Enrico SERRA,
Ambassador and Permanent Representative,
at the 103rd Session of International Labour Conference
Plenary
(Geneva, 6th June 2014)
Mr. Chairperson, Director General, distinguished delegates,
The International Labour Conference discusses this year topics of the utmost
relevance to Italy. I will limit my remarks to the report of the Director General on
labour migration, which is a priority of the Italian Presidency of the European Union,
starting 1st July.
I cannot begin my intervention today without recalling the images of horror after the
latest tragedy that took place on 12th May off the shores of my Country, in the waters
surrounding the island of Lampedusa. That sacrifice of human lives should serve as a
stark reminder to us all of what should be the centre of our concerns when we talk
about migration. The tragedy could have been of an even greater proportion, had the
Italian Navy not immediately intervened and thus saved more than 200 lives in that
occasion only. Italy is strongly committed to combat human trafficking in the
Mediterranean Sea. The "Mare Nostrum" initiative that Italy has launched in October
2013 is a humanitarian operation of rescue at sea and has so far permitted to save
30.605 human lives and to arrest around 200 traffickers. Still, it is not yet enough, as
the most recent tragedies have shown. These figures call for common efforts and
approaches at the global and European level. This represents not only a matter of
humanitarian concern, but also of democratic accountability to public opinion. We
therefore support the rights based approach at the international level that is evoked in
the Director General's report.
Mr. Chairperson,
The Second High Level Dialogue on Migration and Development was indeed a
milestone in global migration governance. We note with satisfaction that its final
Declaration includes a positive recognition of many areas of great importance for
Italy, namely: the particular vulnerabilities of children on the move and the protection
of women migrant workers, including those involved in domestic work; the promotion
of conditions for cheaper transfer of remittances; the need to improve public
perceptions of migrants; the protection of the human rights of all migrants; mobility
programmes that facilitate safe, orderly and regular migration. We are proud to have
actively contributed to the inclusion of specific references to these aspects during the
negotiations and to have been involved in the first concrete follow up to the Dialogue,
namely the ILO's Tripartite Meeting on Labour Migration.
In this context, one issue that was specifically highlighted was the need to reduce the
costs of migration. Italy launched an international initiative to reduce the costs of
transfer of migrant remittances from 10% to 5% over a five-year period, the so-called
"5 by 5" objective, adopted at the G8 Summit held in L'Aquila in 2009. At the
national level, Italy already succeeded in lowering the costs of migrant remittances
from 10.8% in 2008 to 7.42% today. At the global level, the achievement of the target
is being monitored by the World Bank. Unfortunately, even though the costs of
remittances have globally decreased to 8.93%, we are still far away from the target of
5% that should be attained by the end of this year. We have to redouble our efforts if
we want to achieve this target. We invite all countries to join in this effort. We
welcome the Director General's same appeal and we encourage the Organization to
remain committed towards this end.
But there are other costs that migrants have to bear, namely the exorbitantly high
recruitment fees. The HLD and the Tripartite Labour Migration Meeting have both
underscored the need to combat unethical recruitment practices, recognizing they
have very negative impacts on all labour migration stakeholders. When the human
and labour rights of job seekers are not respected, debt bondage, forced labour and
human trafficking can be some of the “knock-on effects". Italy has ratified the 181
Convention on Private Employment Agencies and our Ministry of Labour is closely
working with both IOM and the ILO on these issues. We welcome IOM's IRIS project
on ethical recruitment, that was subscribed by the International Organisation of
Employers and we encourage IOM and the ILO to join forces and cooperate in this
cause. We appreciate that the Director General's report addresses the issue of
instituting fair recruitment processes.
Mr. Chairperson,
We believe that international mobility is not only a factor of social and cultural
enrichment, but also a multiplier and a booster for economic growth. Today, the
foreign community residing in Italy produce a remarkable 40 billion euros in
revenues. According to some studies, budgetary receipts referring to migrants’
activities in 2012 could have been as many as 13.3 billion euros while public
expenditure in their favor could have been 11.9, leaving a surplus of 1.4 billion. We
concur with the Director General's view that the idea that migrants drain resources
from our public welfare is an evident misperception and we support joint efforts at the
international level to generate a more balanced discourse about migration.
We believe that the contribution of the International Training Centre in Turin in
awareness raising, knowledge dissemination and capacity-building on issues related to
migration is key towards this end.
Finally, we strongly encourage the Director General to introduce in the next Strategic
Policy Framework for the Organization for the biennium 2016/17 a specific outcome
on labour migration. We believe there is a need for the ILO to give its specific
contribution on this issue. We also look forward to the Director General's assessment
of his chairmanship of the Global Migration Group for the year 2014.
I thank you Mr. Chairperson.