On 20-21 April 2021, representatives of the International Organization for Migration took part in the V St. Petersburg International Labour Forum.

On 20 April, Renata Held, IOM Regional Director for South-Eastern Europe, Eastern Europe and Central Asia, delivered a video message to the forum participants at the plenary session. In her speech, the Regional Director noted that the processes of global labour movement will be restored in the very near future, but states should take into account the experience of the COVID-19 pandemic, and therefore, to the maximum extent possible to promote the development of remote work and other fundamental changes in the global social and economic processes.

On 21 April, a round table meeting was held on the topic “Peculiarities of regulation of migration processes during the COVID-19 pandemic in the CIS member states”. In his welcoming speech, IOM Moscow Chief of Mission, Abdusattor Esoev, noted that the topic brought up for discussion is extremely relevant for determining ways to overcome the pandemic and its consequences for the host society and migrants, and in the future for creating a fundamentally new format of migration relations that can function sustainably and effectively in the conditions of any emergency.