Parliamentary State Secretary Kerstin Griese met with Indian ambassador Harish Parvathaneni at the Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs on 3 November 2022. Their talks focused on vocational training, securing a sufficient supply of skilled workers, skilled labour migration, and the fight against child labour and forced labour.
For some time, the Federal Employment Agency has been recruiting nursing professionals from the Indian state of Kerala based on a joint agreement. Parliamentary State Secretary Griese explained: "There is great potential for labour migration from India to Germany. Germany wants to attract more skilled workers from third countries. Germany's Government will expand and modernise immigration law to accomplish this.” India is also very interested in scaling-up the migration of skilled workers from India to Germany. Ambassador Parvathaneni said that it was India’s goal to boost labour migration to Germany, expanding it to other professions and regions of India.”
India still faces high levels of child labour and forced labour. The pandemic has further exacerbated the situation. Germany has been a partner of the global Alliance 8.7 since 201, which is committed to eliminating child labour, forced labour and human trafficking. Parliamentary State Secretary Kerstin Griese welcomed India’s efforts to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG’s) adopted by the United Nations. This includes goal 8.7, i.e. to eliminate child labour in all its forms by 2025 and to eradicate forced labour and human trafficking by 2030. Parliamentary State Secretary Griese assured India of the support of the Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs in this area.
Furthermore, the bilateral meeting focused on India’s upcoming G20 Presidency. Parliamentary State Secretary Griese stressed that Germany welcomed India’s choice of topics for the labour track of its 2023 G20 Presidency and was more than ready to support India.