Marrakesh, December 10
A United Nations conference adopted a migration pact in front of leaders and representatives from around 150 countries in Morocco on Monday, despite a string of withdrawals driven by anti-immigrant populism.
The Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration-finalised at the UN in July after 18 months of talks-was formally approved with the bang of a gavel in Marrakesh at the start of a two-day conference.
But the US and 15 other countries either opted out or expressed concerns, with some claiming the pact infringes national sovereignty.
Describing it as a “roadmap to prevent suffering and chaos”, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres sought to dispel what he called a number of myths around the pact, including claims that it will allow the UN to impose migration policies on member states. The pact “is not legally binding”, he said. “It is a framework for international co-operation... that specifically reaffirms the principle of state sovereignty.
“We must not succumb to fear and false narratives”, he told an audience that included German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Panama’s President Juan Carlos Varela and Greek Premier Alexis Tsipras.
Merkel launched an impassioned defence of the pact and multilateralism, saying her country “through Nazism brought incredible pain to humanity”. “The answer to pure nationalism was the foundation of the United Nations and the commitment to jointly searching for answers to our common problems,” she said.
The pact, said Merkel, seeks to prevent, rather than encourage, illegal migration. “This is about safe orderly and regular migration-it says (this) clearly in the title.”
On Friday, the US hit out at the pact, labelling it “an effort by the United Nations to advance global governance at the expense of the sovereign right of states”. It was the first country to disavow the negotiations late last year, and since then Australia, Austria, the Czech Republic, Dominican Republic, Hungary, Latvia, Poland and Slovakia have pulled out of the process.
Rows over the accord have erupted in several European Union nations, hobbling Belgium’s coalition government and pushing Slovakia’s foreign minister to tender his resignation. After the Marrakesh conference, the UN General Assembly is set to adopt a resolution formally endorsing the deal on December 19. — AFP
1st global document on managing border crossings
- Billed as the first international document on managing migration, it lays out 23 objectives to open up legal migration and discourage illegal border crossings, as the number of people on the move globally has surged to more than 250 million
- Such a pact was need of the hour as from the United States to Europe and beyond, right-wing and populist leaders have taken increasingly draconian measures to shut out migrants in recent years
- US President Trump has pledged to build a wall on the US-Mexico border and has focused his recent ire on a migrant caravan from Central America, while a populist coalition government in Italy has clamped down on boats rescuing migrants at sea
Will prevent illegal migration: Merkel
- German Chancellor Angela Merkel says a UN accord on migration is “about nothing less than the foundation of our international cooperation”
- Merkel, who welcomed hundreds of thousands of refugees from places like Syria and Afghanistan to her country, said the pact seeks to prevent, rather than encourage, illegal migration
- She pointed to the 70th anniversary of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights being celebrated also Monday, saying human rights apply “to every person on our planet”
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