ACT inputs to Global Compact on Migration stocktake

A deported migrant weeps as she tells her story in San Salvador. During an attempt to reach the US as a migrant she was kidnapped. Migrants are prey to criminal gangs across Mexico that extort money from migrants, abuse and kill them and sell them into prostitution or slavery. ACT’s contributions to the Global Compact process seek to protect the rights and safety of migrants. Photo: Sean Hawkey

About 900 government representatives and 100 representatives from civil society, UN agencies, and the private sector have been meeting in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, since Monday to deliberate on the outcomes of this year’s thematic and regional consultations for the adoption of a Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration.

The purpose of this stocktaking exercise has been to identify commitments for concrete action which will be included in the zero draft of the Global Compact document, which is expected to be drafted by the end of January, and will form the basis of intergovernmental negotiations next year.

Christian Wolff, ACT’s Programme Manager for Migration & Displacement, contributed a statement to the stocktake. He shared ACT’s concerns for protecting the rights and interests of migrants including:

emphasizing the need for more regular pathways for labour migration,
the need for human rights protection for migrants returning home,
for participatory planning of their eventual reintegration, and
the need to address crucial issues that affect people on the move in both the Global Compact on Migration and the Global Compact on refugees.

The full text of ACT’s contribution to the process can be read here.