In 2019, Papua New Guinea’s National Executive Council established the PNG Labour Mobility Unit (LMU) as an independent unit in Treasury. The Government of PNG’s Draft National Labour Mobility Policy 2021 outlines a vision of “providing opportunities for decent, temporary work overseas for at least 8,000 youth and citizens, both women and men, per year by 2025 to grow PNG’s economy both through remittances and through skills and knowledge transfer to build sustainable industry at home”.
Papua New Guinea (PNG) has access to three main labour mobility schemes in Australia and New Zealand (NZ). These include Australia’s Seasonal Worker Programme (SWP) and Pacific Labour Scheme (PLS) now known as the Pacific Australia Labour Mobility Scheme and New Zealand’s Recognised Seasonal Employer Scheme (RSES).
To assist in meeting the PNG Government’s stated goals, World Bank financing was requested to assist in supporting current efforts to expand PNG’s participation in international labour mobility schemes. The Enhancing Labour Mobility Project Objective is to strengthen government systems in Papua New Guinea that support workers and their households to benefit from overseas employment opportunities, with a focus on women and disadvantaged groups.
The primary Project beneficiaries are current and prospective seasonal/migrant workers and their families from across PNG. The Project is not responsible for the placement of PNG seasonal/migrant workers overseas. Rather, the Project will support the design and operation of the PNG labour mobility initiatives across the labour mobility cycle including worker selection, recruitment, and mobilisation; support whilst undertaking overseas employment; and return/reintegration. All project activities will be implemented in PNG through the Labour Mobility Unit.
The Project will be implemented by the Department of Treasury (DOT) in PNG, through its Labour Mobility Unit (LMU) which is responsible for coordinating PNG’s Labour Mobility Program.