From 6 – 7 June 2016, the regional thematic training seminar “Access of Migrant Workers to Protection Mechanisms” took place in Almaty.

The purposeof the regional thematic training seminar was to strengthen the capacity of participating countries and non-governmental organizations (from the NGO "Sana Sezim" took part - Zhekenov Daulet) in search of solutions to difficult problems in the field of access of migrant workers to protection mechanisms in Kazakhstan.

The event was held within the framework of the IOM Program in the Republic of Kazakhstan "Response to Mixed Migration Flows in Central Asia through Capacity Building", Phase II (2015-2016), funded by the US Government (BNBM / NMB). Participants in the training learned about the norms of international law, best practices and ongoing initiatives in the field of providing professional legal assistance to migrant workers, organizing and providing access to human rights mechanisms.

During the training, the following achievements were made:

• Special attention was paid to the relationship between social development, migration and how the potential of migrants can be used for the development of local communities;
• Provision of an overview of the principles and instruments for protecting the national labor market used in some European countries, and examination of the impact of such protective measures on the flows of migrant workers;
• Revision of difficulties encountered in developing and implementing policies to attract those categories of migrants that are needed to gain competitive advantage in the context of globalization;
• Learning about the recent migration trends in Central Asia and identification of specific problems with observance of labor rights. Particular emphasis was placed on the problems of the most vulnerable groups and best practices in the provision of assistance to these categories of migrants by national governments and IOM missions in Kazakhstan;
• The main elements of the existing systems for enforcing migration legislation have been analyzed on the examples of some countries. Legal norms and operational procedures, responsive conditions of employment and labor contracts, as well as planning and conducting labor inspections have been explored;
• Revision of the issue of vulnerability of migrants in the sociological aspect
• Analysis of strategies of migrants coping with difficulties and new challenges through informal channels, such as dating networks and community practices.