"Global Refugee Management"

Deliverd by Salman Bal, Senior Political Coordination Adviser, on behalf of the Director-General.


Ladies and gentlemen:

It is a great pleasure to welcome you to International Geneva and the Palais des Nations to discuss one of the most pertinent issues of our time, the management of global refugee and migration movements. The Director-General, Mr. Michael Møller, very much regrets that he cannot be with you in person today. He has asked me to transmit to you the following message on his behalf:

Ladies and gentlemen,

Here in Europe, there is currently no topic that illustrates the need for well-informed and fact-based discussion more clearly than the refugee and migration issue. I would like to stress that we have to be very careful about the narrative we choose to apply. The question about a “solution” to migration implies that there is a problem. But migration really is not a problem by definition. People have moved to different places for different reasons since the dawn of time, many of them – indeed, many of us in this room – voluntarily.

The crisis that we are seeing in Europe and elsewhere at the moment is due to weak coordination and mistakes in the management of migrant flows rather than to the mere fact of people being on the move. If you think that we are experiencing at the moment an extraordinary challenge, think ahead to the fact that we will soon be faced with more serious situations. The consequences of climate change, for example, will lead to more important migration flows in the future. Today, we do not have the necessary legal frameworks to deal with ‘climate change’ refugees. Hence, if we don’t start today to agree on international frameworks to address this situation and put them into place, we will face enormous challenges in the coming years. Whether you flee from persecution or from natural disasters, drought and other climate-related phenomena – you move because you have to. The 1951 Refugee Convention is mainly addressing situations of persecution by State authorities and is not apt for the situation I have just described, when the consequences of climate change will force people to flee.

To continue this line of thought about the future of migration, be it forced or voluntary, it is important to bear in mind the challenges that come with large population movements. These include legal, political and logistical aspects, the need for inter-cultural dialogue and protection of the human rights of all migrants. A number of UN entities and partners are working to address these, including the High Commissioner for Refugees and the International Organization for Migration, as well as the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. If we manage to address the challenges, we, all of us, can harness the benefits of migration. And they are numerous.

First of all, migrants bring skills and a workforce that is in demand in many of the countries of destination. With current demographic trends in many developed countries, this demand is likely to increase rather than decrease. According to the International Labour Organization, migrants, especially migrant women, actually have higher labour force participation rates than non-migrants. And rather than taking away these jobs from “locals”, migration creates jobs. According to OECD research, migrants expand the domestic market and create a job for every one they occupy. These economic benefits come with an increase in cultural diversity, which can be a source of creativity and well-being if positively embraced.

In addition, there are notable benefits of migration for the countries of origin in terms of skilled workers with new experience who may return after some years abroad. Further, according to World Bank data, international migrants will send USD 601 billion in remittances to their families in their home countries this year, with developing countries receiving USD 441 billion. This is more than three times the approximately USD 135 billion provided annually as official development assistance (ODA). Migrants thus contribute to the development of their countries.

To capitalize on this potential and better manage the related challenges, it is essential that the right policies are promoted globally, through cross-cutting collaboration. Here, the UN has a major role. The Declaration of the High-level Dialogue on International Migration and Development of 2013 underlines this, and the new policy frameworks that the world gave itself in 2015 – particularly the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development – present us with a unique opportunity for change. Progress in implementing the Sustainable Development Goals will help make migration a choice not a necessity, by addressing the root causes of forced displacement and hence strengthen preventive policies and actions.

However, a lot more needs to be done to relieve the suffering which many refugees and other migrants currently undergo. Three major conferences have paved the way for future action. The first was the World Humanitarian Summit in Istanbul in May 2016 which proposed action to reinforce the nexus between development and humanitarian action. It was followed by the High-Level summit to address large movements of refugees and migrants hosted by the Secretary-General in New York on 19 September which saw the adoption of the New York Declaration for Refugees and Migrants. Member States agreed in this Declaration on a number of commitments, including to:

• start negotiations leading to an international conference and the adoption of a global compact for safe, orderly and regular migration in 2018
• develop guidelines on the treatment of migrants in vulnerable situations
• achieve a more equitable sharing of the burden and responsibility for hosting and supporting the world’s refugees.

This New York Declaration is important because it expands the concept of the refugee response beyond humanitarian aid, like food, medicine or tents, to include education and work opportunities. Complementing the classic humanitarian assistance with development aid is a must, because today’s refugees spend on average 17 years in a refugee camp. On the day of the Conference in New York, the Secretary-General and the Director-General of the International Organization for Migration signed an agreement which will make IOM an organization related to the UN, an attempt to strengthen global governance of migration.

On 20 September, President Obama, joined by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon as well as leaders from Canada, Ethiopia, Germany, Jordan, Mexico and Sweden hosted the Leaders’ Summit on Refugees to generate greater global support in terms of resettlement opportunities and financial resources. Fifty-two countries and international organizations participated in the Summit, announcing commitments that cumulatively increased their total 2016 financial contributions to UN appeals and international humanitarian organizations by approximately $4.5 billion over 2015 levels and roughly doubled the number of refugees to be resettled in 2016.

These actions may prove that enlightened self-interest, humanity and international solidarity can come together to produce a win-win outcome. But this will only address the current short-term spike in numbers of refugees and migrants. A lot of work still needs to be done to address long-term migratory trends. Climate change, growing populations, combined with declining resources and the impact of new technologies hint to more, rather than less, migration flows in the future. How can we address these trends? Better and more coordinated policies, new legal frameworks, globally agreed rules and procedures to deal with large flows of people and a re-energized global solidarity will all be critical to these efforts. Prevention, in the form of better investment in institutions and programmes that reduce the risk of conflict and natural disasters is cheaper than the humanitarian aid required to respond to them. Despite this well-known truism, short-term thinking – often tied to political electoral cycles – still dominates. This must obviously change. In this context, let me add that we do not have any other choice than to invest more in prevention, because we simply cannot cope any longer with the needs to address the current humanitarian crisis. Despite the fact that we have more resources than ever, the gap between the available means and the humanitarian needs is dramatically increasing.

To address these challenges, political leadership – at all levels of governance - will be essential to focus more on prevention and achieve a more coordinated and constructive approach to the refugees and migration situation in Europe and elsewhere.

Thank you very much.