Labour in Madagascar - IOM Development Fund

Labour migration has always been a reality in Madagascar but the number of departures increased significantly with the effects of the political crisis of 2009, when hundreds of thousands of jobs in the formal sector were lost. Neighbouring countries such as Mauritius, Seychelles, and the Gulf Countries, became the main destinations for Malagasy workers employed in the domestic, textile, fishing, and construction sectors.
But the lack of a well-articulated pre-departure on site, paired with return policies for labour migration has led to many of these workers to be exploited, due to irregular and uninformed migration.
In 2015, IOM Madagascar, with the financial support of the IOM Development Fund, launched a project to strengthen labour migration management in Madagascar, to ensure the protection of migrant workers and their families in national policies.
To reach this goal IOM and the Malagasy Ministry of Employment worked hand in hand to bring all the governmental and non-governmental actors to produce the first analysis on labour migration in Madagascar, including recommendations to enhance benefits and reduce risks for migrant workers.
In February 2017, the project concluded with the development of a roadmap to plan actions and priorities to ensure that, by 2020, migration for the purpose of labour can be leveraged to benefit the country’s development.
Produced and edited by Natalie Oren and Giacomo Di Rossi