It is a great honor for me to send a message on the Third Senior officials’ Meeting (SOM) of the Colombo Process scheduled to be held on 4th and 5th November 2015 in Sri Lanka.

As proud members of the Colombo Process, we all share a common intent and vision to make safe migration and protection of rights of our migrant workers a reality.

As we all know migration is a key feature of the globalizing world today. If we can manage properly, migration will benefit countries of origin and destination, migrants and their families and society at large.It will also contribute directly and indirectly to the achievement of the development goals of our countries.

I strongly believe that the management of migration is a shared responsibility of both the countries of origin and countries of destination. If we come together to address the issues and challenges in a spirit of genuine partnership, we will achieve our desired goals on labour migration in our countries.

In this context, regional cooperation and consultative mechanisms, as the Colombo Process, can play a vital role in establishing well managed migration processes. The Colombo Process facilitates dialogue and exchange of information by bringing together the labour sending countries in Asia and create avenues for discussions with the countries of destination and transit, and generates opportunity to enhance coherence, coordination and cooperation, regionally and internationally to respond to the challenges and opportunities related to migration at present.

I believe that the upcoming SOM will ensure continuity and, at the same time, follow-up on the five thematic areas endorsed by all of us.

I am confident that all of us will continue to join forces for the success of these consultations and I look forward to pursuing our fruitful dialogue on labour migration management, with more innovative thinking to assure safe migration and betterment for all migrants.

Thalatha  Atukorale (Member of Parliament)
Minister of Foreign Employment
Sri Lanka.