This week, Julianne Hickey, the Director of Caritas Aotearoa New Zealand, is attending a conference in Bangkok to discuss issues surrounding child protection, human trafficking and labour migration in Asia and Oceania.
The conference focused on “The Future of Work,” is hosted by the International Catholic Migration Commission (ICMC), an organisation working in over 40 countries to protect and serve migrants and refugees.
The conference is part of an initiative aiming to bring together faith leaders and NGO representatives from the Asia-Oceania regions who are engaged in promoting decent work and fair policies related to migration.
Around 70 representatives from grassroots, regional and international organisations specialising in work with migrants and refugees are expected to be in attendance.
The main topics of the three-day meeting include child migrants and refugees, labour migration, human trafficking and smuggling, internally displaced people, implementing global compacts, inter-religious engagement, and the effects of social and environmental issues such as rural development and climate change on labour migration.
As the New Zealand Catholic Bishops’ representative on the ICMC, Mrs Hickey will be chairing the roundtable discussion on human trafficking at the conference.
Prior to leaving for the conference, she said: “It is often women and girls who are disproportionately impacted by exploitation and trafficking. I am looking forward to us understanding ways to tackle this in our region, so that all migration journeys can be done with dignity.”
Caritas supports and advocates for positive change for refugees and migrants through the global Share the Journey Campaign, Day of Prayer for Refugees and Migrants, the Community Organisations Refugee Sponsorship Pilot and the Rohingya Appeal.
Click here for more information about this work.