6/22/2021 South Asia’s migrants share problems, share solutions | Nepali Times But in terms of tangible interventions beyond scripted briefings and talkshops, there is also significant room for improvement. A few emerging good examples of practical interventions include the Comprehensive Information and Orientation Program piloted between Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Philippines, Saudi Arabia and the UAE to ensure migrants are equipped with the right set of information throughout the migration cycle, and a joint skills project between Sri Lanka and UAE. Separately, while the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) was established in 1985, it was only in 2014 that labor migration was recognised as a regional policy priority during the 18th Summit. The Kathmandu Declaration adopted during that summit included commitments to collaborate and cooperate on labor migration from South Asia. But progress has stalled with the 19th SAARC Summit not held as originally scheduled in 2016 due to India-Pakistan tensions. This is a missed opportunity for regional cooperation on migration. Ray Jureidini, a professor at Hamad Bin Khalifa University in Qatar, says the frequent transfers of both ministers and bureaucratic staff of sending countries pose a challenge to sustained, collaborative dialogue across states. “Even when Governments are willing to collaborate, it is difficult to achieve anything meaningful with frequent rotations of leadership as momentum is lost, history is forgotten and you have to start from scratch all the time,” he says. Embassies located in the destination country in each other’s proximity are well placed to coordinate on common issues. But conversations with missions show that there is not much contact between labour attaches and counselors of different sending countries. A few reported never having met fellow embassy staff from other sending countries. One Attache told me: “Somehow, this has not been a priority. With understaffed missions always fire-fighting and buried in paperwork, business that is not usual such as collaboration with other labour attaches and counselors takes a back seat.” 58 Shares https://www.nepalitimes.com/opinion/south-asias-migrants-shared-problems-share-solutions/ 9/19