Seminar discusses migration-related policies

Lam Dong (VNA) – The role of people-elected deputies in implementing migration-related policies and laws was the focus of a seminar held by the National Assembly’s Committee on Social Affairs and the United Nations Population Fund in Vietnam in the Central Highlands province of Lam Dong on December 18.

Speaking at the event, head of the NA Committee Nguyen Thuy Anh briefed participants on Vietnam’s migration situation, stressing that this is an inevitable trend during the development process.

According to the 2015 National Internal Migration Survey, during 2010-2015, 13.6 percent of the population was migrants who mainly moved from urban areas to others or from rural areas to urban areas.

Over the past years, the Party, National Assembly and Government have issued a lot of policies and laws involved in migration, most recently Resolution No.21 of the Party Central Committee’s sixth session on population work in the new situation which set targets of the urban population ratio reaching 45 percent; population in border and island areas and extremely disadvantaged areas arranged appropriately; all migrants gaining accessing basic social services fully and equally; and the entire population registered and managed in a concentrated population database, Anh stated.

Migration has helped people have more chances to develop family economy, improve their lives and approach better educational services, she said, noting that there remain challenges facing migrants in enjoying social welfare policies, thus putting pressure on the nation and localities for migration management, infrastructure development and policy improvement to ensure the equality to access basic social services for migrants and their families.

Le Van Son from the Department for Economic Cooperation and Rural Development under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, said that as of late 2017, the nation had around 24,500 unplanned migrant households which had yet to be arranged stably, mostly in Central Highlands provinces.

Unplanned migration has had negative impacts on economic development, social security and order and environmental and natural resources protection, he added.

At the event, delegates delivered reports providing information about migration as well as difficulties, challenges and orientations for migration management in the time ahead.-VNA