P O P U L A T I O N
Nations Still Do Not Back U.N. Migration Conference
By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS (IPS) - The U.N. has failed again to generate
political support for a longstanding proposal to organise an international
conference on migration and development.
Secretary-General Kofi Annan says that only 25 out of 191 U.N.
member governments support the proposal -- which has been kicking
around in the U.N. system for nearly 10 years.
''And the majority (of the 25 member states) considered that
it should be of a technical and analytical nature,'' he says in
a report to the upcoming General Assembly session in September.
Support for the idea has also continued to decline -- from 47
governments that were ”generally in favour” two years
ago, to 25 this year.
Opposition to the conference has come mostly from countries
in the Middle East and Western Europe that depend heavily on migrant
labour -- both skilled and unskilled -- to sustain their economies.
''They don't want a conference because it would not only raise
issues concerning the exploitation of migrant labour but also
try to consolidate the rights of expatriate workers,'' a U.N.
source told IPS.
The agenda for the conference could also include sensitive issues,
such as sweatshop labour, sexual violence against female workers,
the right to family reunion, trade union rights and minimum wages.
But Robert Paiva of the International Organisation for Migration
(IOM) thinks that one of the main factors for states' reticence
--''some would say scepticism'' -- has been the lack of clarity
about the meeting's objectives.
That reticence was evident when the idea of a U.N. conference
on migration was first mooted at the 1994 International Conference
on Population and Development (ICPD) in Cairo, he added.
''It is not unreasonable to expect that a certain level of global
consensus would need to exist before embarking on discussion of
a complex issue, which is far from uncontroversial -- and at the
global level, it is not clear that such a consensus exists,''
Paiva said in an interview.
Serious concerns exist in many quarters that an ill-timed effort
could, in fact, result in a step backward, not least for the way
migrants are viewed and treated, he added.
On the other hand, Paiva said, a number of promising consultation
processes are developing at the regional level and are resulting
in improved understanding and cooperation on migration issues.
''Over time, these could lead to the sort of consensus that
would make the idea of a global conference more acceptable to
a greater number of states,'' he added.
In his report, Annan says that the suggested gathering has been
considered a possible forum to address the complex issues involved
in maximising the benefits to development resulting from international
migration.
''While the possibility of convening a U.N. conference on the
theme remains uncertain,'' Annan says, ''the expectation that
the United Nations should address this global challenge in a comprehensive
manner has grown.''
There must be ''stronger efforts by the United Nations to increase
awareness of the rights of international migrants and the importance
of effective integration of international migrants into the host
society'', adds the secretary-general.
Countries that depend on migrant labour include Germany, the
United States, Canada, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, United Arab
Emirates, Israel, Japan, Jordan, Malaysia and Singapore.
Nations providing expatriate workers include Mexico, the Philippines,
India, Morocco, Lebanon, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Morocco,
Egypt and Turkey.
The U.N.'s population division says that about 175 million persons
-- one in every 35 people or 3.0 percent of the world population
-- are international migrants.
On Jul. 1, a new global convention to protect the rights of
migrant workers came into force. But only 22 of the U.N.'s 191
member states have ratified the treaty, including Egypt, Morocco,
Philippines, Mexico, Sri Lanka, Ghana, Ecuador, El Salvador, Seychelles
and Colombia.
The convention's impact remains limited, given that it has not
been ratified by countries in either Europe or North American,
where nearly 60 percent of the world's migrants live (56 million
and 41 million people respectively), according to the U.N. Educational,
Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO).
The treaty has not been ratified by any of the major host countries,
including Kuwait, Jordan, United Arab Emirates, Israel, Japan
and Australia, the agency added in a July press statement.
''International migration has become an increasingly important
issue in recent years,'' UNESCO said, ''It is linked to the political,
social, economic and cultural contexts of the sending and receiving
countries, and to such factors as ageing populations, unemployment,
the brain drain, remittances of migrant workers, human rights,
social integration, xenophobia, human trafficking and national
security.''
The economic importance of international migration is underlined
by the contribution that migrants make to the foreign exchange
reserves of their home countries.
