Workshop of the Trade Union Network on Mediterranean and Sub-Saharan Migration

The trade unions organisations attending the workshop held in Casablanca, Morocco, from 6 to 8 August (UMT, CDT: Morocco, UGTT: Tunisia, SNAPAP: Algeria, EFITU: Egypt, CGTM: Mauritania, CGIL: Italy, CGT, CFDT: France, CSTM: Mali, USTN: Niger, UGTCI: Côte d’Ivoire, CARISM: Senegal) in the presence of representatives from the ILO, ITUC, PSI, Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung(FES) and Nexus/CGIL:

1. Recommend that all organisations involved in the drive to promote migrants’ rights in the Mediterranean and Sub-Saharan area equip themselves with structures exclusively dedicated to the issue of migration. Such structures would highlight the importance these organisations attach to migration, identified as one of their main priorities. It would also enable better, faster and more effective management of migration issues.

2. Call on all the States in the Mediterranean and Sub-Saharan area to ratify all international conventions regarding migration, including ILO Conventions C97 and C143 and the United Nations Convention of 1990, to bring their national laws into line with the content of these international conventions and to ensure that these provisions are fully implemented.

3. Urge the public authorities in their respective countries to commit to involving trade unions in the drawing up, management and follow-up of policies concerning migrants.

4. Urge regional bodies, such as those within the European Union, to involve trade unions in the discussion, formulation and assessment of programmes, the follow-up and the bilateral or multilateral negotiations concerning migrant workers and to invite trade union representatives to take part in consultations regarding the Mobility Partnership declarations initiated and concluded by the European Union, and denounce the security-centred aspect of these declarations with Morocco (7 June 2013) and Tunisia (3 March 2014), which materialised as a result of the conditionality linked to concluding readmission agreements.

5. Call on the ITUC (ITUC-Africa, ITUC-Arab Region), the ETUC and the USTMA to work with the Trade Union Network on Mediterranean and Sub-Saharan Migration.

6. Call on African regional and subregional organisations (AU, ECOWAS, AMU...) to involve the Network in the examination and follow-up of issues regarding migration.