An online meeting was held on August 17, 2021 within the scope of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) Turkey’s “Public-Private Partnerships (PPP): Facilitating Legal Pathways for the International Labour Force in Turkey” project.  

The project is funded by the United Kingdom and implemented by IOM Turkey in cooperation with Turkey’s Ministry of Labour and Social Security- Directorate General of International Labour Force (DGILF). Besides the IOM and DGILF officials, vocational counsellors at Migrant Community/Migrant Services centres within the related municipalities (Ankara, Adana, Gaziantep, Kilis, Mersin and Şanlıurfa) private sector representatives, SME owners, representatives from Turkish Employment Agency (İŞKUR) and Vocational Qualification Authority (VQA) also attended. 

At the meeting, information was given on issues such as international labour migration management, registered employment, work permits and the activities implemented by IOM, DGILF, İŞKUR and VQA were also introduced.  

The PPP project is built upon many years of experience by IOM Turkey and DGILF working together to contribute to the Government of Turkey’s strategic priorities in the labour migration sector. 

DGILF and IOM aim to facilitate dialogue between public and private partners to promote regular labour migration, including regularisation of existing migrant workers in employment, and mitigate risks stemming from informal employment practices, increase inter-institutional cooperation related to sustainable labour market integration of migrants with diverse statuses and enhance preventive labour inspection guidance practices for a migrant worker.  

Therefore, the project will build upon previous efforts of IOM and DGILF in developing a comprehensive labour migration management system in line with the national framework.