Current global migration system under strain, FM says at GFMD in Dhaka

The foreign minister has said that the current global migration system is ‘under strain’, suggesting a ‘sound mechanism’ of governance for international migration.

Senior Correspondentbdnews24.com
Published : 10 Dec 2016, 01:57 PM
Updated : 10 Dec 2016, 01:57 PM

“This (mechanism) can be built upon the bedrocks provided by the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs),” AH Mahmood Ali said on Saturday at the 9th annual meeting of the Global Forum on Migration and Development, GFMD, in Dhaka.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina inaugurated the conference and urged the global community to focus on the migrant and refugee crisis across the world.

“Migration that Works for Sustainable Development of All: A transformative migration agenda” is the theme of this year’s meeting.

The foreign minister said the gathering in Dhaka “amplifies an overriding message: the enduring need to recognise that migration is a mega-trend - for all places, for all people, at all times.” 

He said the hosting of the 9th GFMD by Bangladesh under Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s leadership is “our tribute to the migrants around the world for the betterment of their lives while contributing in the development of their host communities and countries”.

“I pay tribute to those also who work to uphold the cause of migrants. Migration serves as an indispensable tool of economic, political, or social development, which is greatest at the extreme ends of the socioeconomic spectrum”.

“It is not just a technical or labour issue. It has long been a barograph of geopolitics,” he said. 

The international community was engaging in discussions and negotiations on a Global Compact for safe, orderly and regular migration, the foreign minister said.