OREANDA-NEWS. July 10, 2012. Council meeting on labor migration of Ukrainian citizens under the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine has been held in the Building of the Ministry of Social Policy chaired by the Deputy Minister of Social Policy Vasyl Nadraga with the participation of the Head of the International Organization for Migration in Ukraine Manfred Prophase and the National Coordinator of the International Labour Office in Ukraine Vasyl Kostritsa.

This meeting was focused on current problems, requirements and needs of migrants, interstate coordination of social protection of migrants, as well as the protection of the rights and freedoms of Ukrainian seamen.

Opening the meeting, Vasyl Nadraga noted that the issues scheduled for consideration, in his opinion, are the key and have priority in the direction of strengthening the social and legal protection of labor migrants - citizens of Ukraine.

At present, Ukraine is a party to the European Convention on the Legal Status of Migrant Workers, the Agreement on Cooperation in the field of labor migration and social protection of migrant workers, the Protocol to the Agreement, which governs the processes of border migration within the CIS, Convention on Legal Status of Migrant Workers and their family members of the Commonwealth of Independent States.

Also, Ukraine is a party in 13 bilateral agreements on employment and social protection of migrant workers and 8 bilateral agreements on social security.

The Ministry noted that one of the main tasks now is to extend the contractual framework with the countries in which the number of labor migrants - citizens of Ukraine - is weighty. So it should strengthen the social and legal protection of migrant workers and the adoption of the Law "On labor migration", a project which has already been developed by the Ministry of Social Policy.