“UN must play leading role to ensure migrants’ rights”

The United Nations must play leading role to ensure migrants’ rights and protect them during the emergencies, said civil society members at an international conference in Dhaka today.

Establishing inclusive connectivity between the civil societies and the governments, the UN agencies should promote national and regional bodies to work for the migrants’ protection, they added on the first day of a two-day long Civil Society Days as a part of the 9th Global Forum on Migration and Development (GFMD) in Bangladesh.

“We are passing very difficult times for global political instabilities. We need governance for migration management. It has to be a part of political governance,” said Shahidul Haque, foreign secretary and chair-in-office of the 9th GFMD Summit.

Urging to finalise the formation of “Global Compact on Migration” which has been proposed by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the UN General Assembly on “Large Movements of Refugees and Migrants” on September 19 this year, the secretary said it is urgent to ensure the migrants’ rights and also the human rights.

Over nine million Bangladeshis work abroad and send home annually around $15 billion, but remain in vulnerabilities when caught up in situations like that of Libya crisis in 2011 and Andaman crisis in 2015.

When the migrants are caught up in such conflicts, there is no proper global body to protect them, Shahidul mentioned, stressing the necessity of the global compact.

The global compact 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 from abuse and exploitation in the host countries, there must be an inclusive voice raised by the civil societies and the governments, said Michele Klein Solomon, director of the Migration Policy and Research Department at the International Organisation 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 9th GFMD and Syed Saiful Haque, chairman at Warbe Development Foundation, among others, also spoke at the programme.

Representatives from 28 countries and many international organisations are attending in the conference which will end tomorrow (Friday).