Within the framework of the global initiative of the International Recruitment Integrity System (IRIS), the missions of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in Nicaragua and Panama held on August 31, 2021 a blended session with on-site and virtual participants on the Ethical Recruitment of Migrant Workers in Domestic Work. Leaders organized groups of workers and labour unions, as part of the civil society of Nicaragua and Panama and members of the Regional Inter-Union Committee for the Defense of the Rights of Migrant Workers (C.I.-Regional, C.I. Nicaragua and C.I. Panama), as well as special guests, participated in the event.

The objective of this activity was to sensitize and train trade union leaders, representatives of organized workers' groups on the human rights and fundamental rights of workers, especially migrant workers in domestic work.

Olimpia Chamorro, Vice-coordinator of the Inter-Union Committee of Migrant Workers of Nicaragua, said that migrant workers, her colleagues, "give many contributions to each country they are living in...where they work, they boost the economy of those countries." "It is very important that all the countries in the region unite on these issues that we are talking about with IOM, which are the tools we have to continue fighting for our fellow migrants," Chamorro said.

These exchanges are important "to be able to collaborate with actions that help us to carry out this work that is very difficult, often due to the circumstances of the comrades who are migrating in the countries of the region," said María de los Ángeles Cortés, representative of the Inter-Union Committee of Panama. Online, more than 30 migrants working in the domestic sector were able to participate in the session.

Marisabel Martin, IOM's Senior Monitoring Assistant in Panama, gave a presentation on the basics of protection, risk analysis and vulnerability assessment, and highlighted the main obstacles to access labour justice and the protection of migrants' labour rights.

"Yes, we consider it extremely important to take into account Nicaraguan migration in the context of the ethical recruitment of migrant workers in domestic work. More so when 40% of the visas for domestic workers granted by the National Migration Service are, precisely, for Nicaraguan nationals," explained María Isabel Saravia, Deputy Director of the National Migration Service of the Republic of Panama.

Rorix Nuñez, Specialist in International Labour Conventions and Standards, spoke about the commitment of countries to the Convention No. 189 and Adriana Paz, Regional Coordinator for Latin America of the International Domestic Workers Federation, presented the Guide to Occupational Safety and Health Guidelines for COVID-19 for Employers and Domestic Workers.

For their part, Marisol Linero, Consultant specialist in labour migration at IOM Panama, and Elizabeth Membreño, IRIS Focal Point at IOM Nicaragua, organized this binational session to demonstrate how these spaces for participatory dialogue at the regional level can promote local actions in the labour sector that thus promote Ethical Recruitment as a means for the protection of the rights of migrant workers, from the channeling of the "voice of the migrant".

Michela Macchiavello, IOM's Regional Thematic Specialist on Labour Migration and Human Development, gave the panorama of migration and ethical recruitment in Central America and

explained that IRIS is a "tool that seeks to radically transform the international recruitment system so that the labour and human rights of migrant workers can be respected and, above all, so that abuses can be completely eliminated." Additionally, she emphasized the costs of recruitment that should not be awarded to migrant workers. According to the principle of IRIS, "the employer pays."

José Brizuela, Coordinator of the Regional Inter-Union Committee for the Defense of the Rights of Migrant Workers (CI-Regional), explained that previously, with the exception of a minority of trade union centers in the agro-industrial sector, most of the trade union organizations in each country in the Central American region, the Caribbean and Mexico did not have on their agendas the defense of the rights of migrant workers. He also stressed that the first regional coordinations arose from binational actions between Costa Rica and Nicaragua; then trinational actions including Panama, and later the unification of groups and trade union centers of national representation in the Central American region and the Dominican Republic.

In the following steps, it is expected to explore opportunities for replications of this activity with other Missions and strategic actors linked to organized workers' groups, as well as to identify actions related to the labour dynamics where migrant workers work in the region.

Since 2020, IOM has been carrying out actions with different social actors such as private placement agencies, State institutions and organized groups of workers to promote ethical recruitment, within the framework of the project Promoting Ethical Recruitment in the Hotel and Tourism Industry, implemented by IOM and financed by the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration (PRM).

For more information, please contact Mayteé Zachrisson, IOM Communications and Media Assistant in Panama, at mzachrisson@iom.int, and Cynthia Cordero, IOM Communications Assistant in Nicaragua, at cycordero@iom.int.