He was speaking at a plenary session on 'High Level Dialogue on International Migration and Development' at the 61st session of the UN General Assembly in New York on Thursday, according to a message received yesterday.

The first-ever high level event is aimed at finding ways to maximise the benefits of migration by reducing difficulties. Representatives from 120 governments attended the two-day dialogue.

The state minister called on the international community to take urgent steps for liberalisation of markets for the movement of service providers under mode 4 of the General Agreement on Trade in Service (GATS).

He proposed that all member of the labour sending countries can set up a negotiating forum for furthering the case of movement of service providers.

Terming the migrant workers "vulnerable to exploitation", he underscored the need for efforts to fully eliminate the exploitation and discrimination by ensuring fair treatment, decent work, minimum wages and recognition of status of migrant workers.

"We are only beginning to learn how to make migration work more consistently for development," UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said in a report. He attended the inaugural session of the meeting.

The delegates also attended a roundtable on the themes such as 'Effects of international migration on economic and social development', 'Measures to ensure respect for and protection of human rights of all migrants' and 'Measures to prevent and combat smuggling of migrants and trafficking in persons'.