Egypt, Germany To Co-chair First IMRF's Meeting

Egypt, which is a champion country of the Global Compact for Migration (GCM), and Germany will co-chair the first-panel meeting of the International Migration Review Forum (IMRF) that takes place from 17-20 May at the United Nations (UN) headquarters in New York.

This comes within the framework of Egypt’s keenness to contribute to strengthening the efforts of the international community to combat human trafficking and illegal immigration.

As part of Egypt's participation in IMRF, Ambassador Neveen El-Husseiny, Deputy Assistant Foreign Minister for Migration, Refugee Affairs, and Anti-Human Trafficking at the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs will give a speech at the first round of the Forum's meetings.

According to a statement released on Sunday by IOM, UN Member States and Observers, UN system representatives, as well as stakeholder groups will attend the first International Migration Review Forum where progress made under the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly, and Regular Migration (GCM) will be assessed.

The statement revealed that the Forum, chaired by the President of the General Assembly, is an opportunity for participants to highlight successes and challenges made in implementing the GCM at the local, national, regional, and global levels since its adoption almost four years ago.

Attendees will be committing to further concrete actions to better protect and support the more than 281 million migrants in the world through policy and practice change, the statement added.

“Properly managed, migration has the potential to spur economic growth, innovation, and positive cross-cultural interaction that enriches societies,” said Abdulla Shahid, the President of the UN General Assembly.

On his part, António Vitorino, the Director-General of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and Coordinator of the UN Network on Migration, said: “At this first global review of the Compact, we are here to take stock of how far we have come and how much more we need to do."

Also in this regard, Vitorino indicated that IOM and their partners have a responsibility to save lives.

"We have a responsibility to uphold human rights and protect those in the most vulnerable situations," he affirmed.

The review will involve discussions on all the 23 objectives of the GCM, strengthening principled governance of international migration and will focus on such issues as ensuring that recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic and planning for future disasters is inclusive, that human rights are respected, including in response to climate related migration, that vulnerabilities that undermine wellbeing are reduced and that legal migration pathways are built up, the IOM's statement explained.

It's worth mentioning that the International Forum will conclude on Friday, May 20th, with the adoption of a Progress Declaration, setting new priorities and milestones for international migration governance for the four years to come.