PH, 151 other nations ratify UN deal on migration
The Philippines on Thursday joined 151 other countries in adopting the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration (GCM), a non-binding document that would provide safe and orderly migration, during the United Nations General Assembly meeting in New York City.
Twelve countries abstained while five nations voted against it – the United States, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Poland, and Israel.
Billed as the first international document on managing migration, it lays out 23 objectives to open up legal migration
and discourage illegal border crossings, as the number of people on the move globally has surged to more than almost 260 million, or 3.4 percent of the world' population.
More than 80 percent of those moving between countries do so legally, but more 60,000 people have died trying to cross border illicitly since 2000, according to UN figures.
Rows over the accord have erupted in several European Union nations, sparking the collapse of Belgium's coalition government and pushing Slovakia's foreign minister to tender his resignation.
From the United States to Europe and beyond, right-wing and populist leaders have taken increasingly draconian measures to shut out migrants in recent years.
According to diplomats, the United States had sought up to the last minute to convince other countries not to support the pact.
‘Useful additions’
In his speech prior to the voting, Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr said: “We defeated the notion that migration is bad. And we did this with facts and not frightful fantasies of job losses no Westerner would take. When jobs are lost they are not taken by migrants; but by people who stay home, work harder for lesser pay, and beat the better-paid competition abroad. We did it with reason by showing that migrants have been useful additions to the workforces of host countries; they are a good response to unfair foreign competition.”
Locsin pointed out that the Compact “merely seeks by clear delineation, and with the mildest suggestion of what might be done out of decency, about the problems encountered by migrants.”
“It does not presume to tell states what to do with people who happen to be in their midst; for that is surely a strictly sovereign decision. We see this in the unsolved Rakhine problem created by one empire at the expense of a subject nation. None of us should presume to dictate to the latter how to solve it. But we might speak politely of what would be the decent thing to do,” he continued.
‘Solidarity with migrants’
Locsin further argued that the Compact “does not derogate one iota from sovereignty” but reveals sovereignty’s fundamentally moral nature.
“A key aspect of sovereignty is the care states must take of people inside them; even if they are on the move – from countries of origin, through countries of transit, to where finally they end up to be welcomed or booted out. The Compact merely speaks truth to sovereign power and reminds it of its moral aspect,” said Locsin whose speech was met with extended applause from the participants at the UNGA.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres explained that the document “reaffirms the foundational principles of our global community, including national sovereignty and universal human rights, while pointing the way toward humane and sensible action to benefit countries of origin, transit, and destination as well as migrants themselves”.
The Compact, he added, “calls for greater solidarity with migrants in situations of appalling vulnerability and abuse,” that it “underscores the need to anticipate future trends”, and that it “highlights the imperative of devising more legal pathways for migration.”