UN must play leading role to ensure migrants' rights
Dhaka conference told
The United Nations must play a leading role to ensure migrants' rights and protect them during the emergencies, said civil society members at an international conference in Dhaka yesterday.
Establishing inclusive connectivity between the governments and civil societies, the UN agencies should promote national and regional bodies to work for the migrants' protection, they added at the first day of a two-day Civil Society Days as a part of a ninth Global Forum on Migration and Development (GFMD) in Bangladesh.
Urging to finalise the formation of “Global Compact on Migration” Shahidul Haque, foreign secretary and chair-in-office of the GFMD summit, said when the migrants are caught up in conflicts, there is no proper global body to protect them.
Shahidul stressed the necessity of a global compact, which may be a binding agreement for the member states that will have political commitment to protect the migrants and refugees under the UN framework.
To protect the migrants, there must be an inclusive voice raised by the civil societies and governments, said Michele Klein Solomon, director of the Migration Policy and Research Department at the International Organization for Migration.
Pia Oberoi, advisor on Migration and Human Rights at the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights; Sarnata Reynolds, a policy adviser on global migration and displacement at Oxfam International; Colin Rajah, civil society chair at ninth GFMD; and Syed Saiful Haque, chairman of Warbe Development Foundation, also spoke.