East African Regional Labor Reports for Host

UNCLAS NAIROBI 003213 SIPDIS DEPT FOR AF/E, AF/RSA, G/TIP, AND DRL/IL DEPT ALSO PASS TO LABOR FOR ILAB SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: ELAB PHUM KCRM PGOV KE SUBJECT: East African Regional Labor Reports for Host Governments For all Labor Reporting Officers from Regional Labor Officer (RLO) ¶1. Summary: Regional Labor Officer (RLO) will send compilations of the State Department, Labor Department, ICFTU, and other reports on worker rights, child labor, and TIP for the 13 East African countries and destination countries in the Middle East and Europe to Labor Reporting Officers in the East African countries. RLO requests that Posts provide copies to appropriate host government agencies, NGOs, unions, and international organizations to increase their knowledge of these problems, give them a regional perspective, and help them to increase public awareness about the problems. End Summary. ¶2. One of the problems our host government agencies and local NGOs face when trying to address issues like forced labor, TIP, child labor and worker rights is collecting and disseminating information to organizations and the public to raise their awareness. Poverty makes many people in our host countries susceptible to alluring offers of work in other domestic locales or in other countries that turn out to be fraudulent and/or lead to abusive situations. ¶3. The USG and some international organizations publish annual reports on these issues with information that should be useful to host government officials and NGOs. However, these local organizations often have limited access to the internet, and limited paper, toner, and funds for making printouts or publishing reports they can obtain. ¶4. The Kenyan Ministry of Labor plans to create a resource room in which to collect the materials on these issues developed by government agencies, NGOs and international organizations, some of them funded by USAID or Dept of Labor. Prospective work applicants could use this information resource to check out a country before going to work there. Companies, NGOs and government agencies can use them to develop or enhance local policies and programs to combat these problems. ¶5. RLO has compiled the following documents for the 13 East African countries in his region, plus destination countries in the Mid East and Europe: - Section 6 on Worker Rights from the 2006 State Department annual Human Rights report - TIP Country reports from the 2006 State Department Trafficking in Persons Report - Country reports from the 2006 International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) report on violations of trade union rights by the - Dept of Labor Trade Act Report on the Worst Forms of Child Labor. - Saudi government pamphlet for foreign workers and their employers on their rights and obligations ¶6. RLO requests that Labor Reporting Officers provide hard copies, soft copies or disks as appropriate of these reports to relevant host government agencies, NGOs, employers federations, professional organizations, union organizations, and international organizations to increase their own knowledge of these problems, gain a regional perspective, and use that information to increase public awareness and sensitize people about the problems. RLO requests that officers report delivery of these reports by front channel message or by e-mail to fleitmanrh@state.gov. Hoover