Germany Announces New Initiative To Improve Labour Migration In Ghana

Posted by Eric Ojo Africa, African News, Latest Headlines Thursday, February 23rd, 2023

(AFRICAN EXAMINER) – The German Government has announced its proposed new initiative be launched in Ghana which is aimed at improving skilled migration.

German Cabinet minister of Labour, Hubertus Heil and his colleague, the Minister of Development, Svenja Schulze disclosed this on Tuesday during a visit to West Africa.

Their two ministries said the German government is undertaking a “paradigm shift in German migration policy”.

The proposed law lowers the hurdles for skilled labour immigration and encourages people willing to emigrate to be better supported in their home countries. “The aim is to use safe, regular and orderly migration for mutual benefit”, they said.

Schulze and Heil’s visit to West Africa began in Ghana, where they aim to give the starting signal for the policy reform, by releasing a joint declaration with Ghana’s Labour Ministry.

The ministers also noted that the policy was not meant to take skilled workers away from Ghana, but rather represented a “win-win situation”.

Meanwhile, in Ghana there are many young people who are well-educated but currently have hardly any opportunities on the domestic labour market.

A Ghanaian-German migration advisory centre in Accra, which opened in 2017, is to be further developed as part of the initiative, giving comprehensive information for people on routes to work in Germany.

The rest of the ministers’ five-day visit is aimed at tackling child labour in cocoa production and other unethical production practices.

In a related development, the German Minister of the Interior and Home Affairs, Nancy Faeser and Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, have visited the quake-hit Turkish-Syrian border region and pledged their enduring support amid new quakes.

The two top German ministers made the pledge to render support in terms of aid and reconstruction efforts, only one day after two new earthquakes rocked the region.

While commenting on the backlash of earth quakes in the region, Baerbock said: “Our sympathy is not exhausted in words and it will not diminish when the catastrophe and its consequences are replaced by other headlines in the news”.

Similarly, Faeser assured the region of Germany’s “deeply felt solidarity” in the face of the tens of thousands of victims. “The survivors, who have lost everything, need winter-proof shelters quickly”, she added.

Germany was quick to send considerable amounts of aid to the region. The European Union (EU) country has a special relationship with Turkey, as it is home to the largest community in the Turkish diaspora.

The German army has delivered more than 340 tons of aid to Turkey on 20 flights. On Tuesday, its air force is set to transport 13 more tons of supplies to Turkey. Included are 100 tents, 400 camp beds and more than 1,000 sleeping bags.

On February 6, two strong quakes hit south-eastern Turkey and northern Syria. More than 47,000 have died in the disaster so far, with more than 41,000 in Turkey alone.

One day before the ministers’ visit, two more quakes occurred, three minutes apart, measuring 6.4 and 5.8 in magnitude, according to AFAD, Turkey’s disaster management agency.

Three people are reported to have died, with hundreds more being injured as the quakes hit the already disaster-struck region.