SIMN

94th Council Session of the International Organization for Migration (IOM)

From November 27th to the 30th, the 94th Council Session of the IOM brought together 122 states members and many permanent observers. SIMN was present at this meeting which called to consider issues related to human mobility and labor markets, migration and environment. It was held in the United Nations building in Geneva.

After the presentation of the situation of migration and the migratory policies of the member states, a number of experts intervened on the subject of human mobility and the labor market of today’s evolving global economy. This issue is an aspect of the international dialogue promoted by the IOM in the area of international migration and development. Among the experts were: Lorena Escudero Duran, Ecuador’s National Secretariat for Migrants; Vayalar Ravi, India’s Foreign Relations Minister; Haten Bem Salem, Tunisia’s Secretary of State for European Affairs and Máxime Tandonnet, Advisor on Immigration and Integration Cabinet of Nicolas Sarkozy, France’s President.  José Magalhães, Portugal’s Assistant Minister for Internal Administration talked about migration as a priority of the Portuguese presidency of the European Union.

The Council also dealt with wide-raging issues such as the repercussions of environmental changes on migrations. A number of experts took the floor to address this topic, among them: Qiao Zonghuai, China’s Vice-Minister of Foreign Relations; Theodoros Skylakakis, Greece’s Secretary General for International Economic Relations and Development Cooperation, Ministry of Foreign Affairs; Abdul Bari Khan, Bangladesh’s Additional Secretary, Ministry of Food and Disaster management; Nguele Dieudonné Tolo, Cameroon’s Director General, National Forestry Development Agency (NFDA); Jaifa Mezher, Colombia’s Director, Programa Colombia Nos Une, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Christophe Bouvier, Director Regional Office for Europe, United Nations Environment Program.

In several governments’ reports there was a tendency to promote the international fluidity of goods and capitals in dichotomy with the restrictive policies on the movement of people.  Vis-à-vis the restrictive and immoral, since they criminalize the migrant person, policies, the representatives of some of the migrants’ countries of origin and of NGOs stressed the necessity of defining and implementing migration policies based upon the dignity of the human person and the promotion of a global development strategy.

During the Council, member states were informed by Ali Abdullah Al-Ka'abi, United Arab Emirates’ Minister for Labor, of the next Regional Consultation Process on the Management of Foreign Labor and Contractual Labor for the Asian countries of origin for in January 2008 in Abu Dhabi. It will be the first time that a country of immigration organizes this meeting.