Guyana supports UN talks on migration

Guyana on Wednesday said it welcomed the recently-completed first round of talks on migration at United Nations headquarters.
The initiative, which involves UN Member States, including Guyana, saw the completion of this first meeting as a step closer towards crafting a “Global Compact for Safe, Orderly, and Regular Migration (GCM)”.
Guyana, whose Diaspora is as large as its internal population, recognises the loss of skilled and unskilled persons as a result of irregular movement of people and the lack of success of unilateral efforts to address these challenges.
Also, prior to the ongoing discussions, Guyana held a local national consultative meeting on migration as a means to better inform its position on the Global Compact talks.
The UN has now taken a people-centred approach and stressed the need for international cooperation which Guyana fully supported.
The Zero Draft document reflecting the outcome of the initial meeting will be up for a second round of negotiations next week from Monday, March 12 to Thursday, March 15.
Six meetings are scheduled to be held until July this year when UN Member States are expected to adopt the GCM.
Guyana is being represented at these talks by Head of the Diaspora Unit, Michael Brotherson, and Director of the Multilateral and Global Affairs Department, Troy Torrington, both of the Foreign Affairs Ministry.
In 2016, 193 UN Member States adopted the New York Declaration at the UN Summit for Refugees and Migrants. In adopting the Declaration, the Member States signalled their readiness to finalise a GCM that not only aligns with goal 10 of the Sustainable Development Goals, but also coordinates the efforts of each UN Member State, the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) and the UN to protect and empower migrants through policies that ensure safe, orderly, and regular migration.