Countries to vote on final draft of refugee compact
The UN General Assembly is expected to vote on the final draft of the global compact for refugees this week, hoping to improve the international community’s response to the highest level of displacement.
More than 68 million people have been forced to leave their homes this year. About 25.4 million of them are refugees who fled their country and 3.1 million are asylum seekers, the UN refugee agency said.
“The High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi, is expected to propose the refugee global compact in his 2018 report to the assembly, with the hope that it will be adopted by the end of the year,” a spokeswoman for the UN agency told The National.
The non-binding agreement, approved by all 193 member nations except the US, aims to make migration safe and orderly amid issues of national sovereignty and international co-operation.
The pact also aims to provide protection to more than 240 million people classified as migrants.
The International Organisation of Migration defines a migrant as any person who is moving or has moved across an international border or within a state regardless of legal status, causes for the move and whether the movement is voluntary or not.
Washington withdrew from negotiations on the agreement last year, saying it was not compatible with US sovereignty.
The UN spokeswoman said the compact was meant to take the General Assembly’s New York Declaration for Refugees and Migrants 2016 to the next level.
Its formal adoption is set for December in Morocco.
The 73rd session of the UN General Assembly is being held under the theme “Making the United Nations Relevant to All People: Global Leadership and Shared Responsibilities for Peaceful, Equitable and Sustainable Societies”.
In July, the UN agreed on wide-ranging ways to cope with the millions of migrants moving countries, overcoming mistrust and difficult issues to draw up the first migration pact.
The official Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration addresses why people migrate, how to protect them, how to integrate them into new countries, means of returning them home and other issues.
It seeks to provide greater support to host countries and communities in a manner that supports refugee protection and the search for durable solutions, a report by UN agency says.
This includes additional financing but also political support, technical assistance, capacity-building and efforts to address root causes and establish conditions in countries of origin that enable refugees to return safely.
“We would see better education for refugee boys and girls, as well as better access to health services for all refugees, and more livelihood opportunities,” said Volker Turk, the agency’s assistant high commissioner for protection.
“We would also see a different way host communities engage with refugees, hopefully moving away from the encampment policies that we still have in too many countries.”
The initiative came after the migration crisis in Europe in 2015, which produced the biggest influx of refugees and migrants since the Second World War, from countries such as Syria, Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Iraq.
The crisis strained resources and triggered fears of foreigners and nationalist tension.
The pact includes efforts to change the conditions in origin countries that caused refugees to leave