Washington’s refusal to back UN migration compact overshadows Marrakesh signing
Anti-immigration policies in the US and several European countries are blamed for states pulling out of new deal
The UN’s response to the migration crisis of 2015 is at risk of being undermined by the US and other countries, which will stay away from a major event in Morocco today and tomorrow where the international plan is to be signed.
Washington renewed its criticism of the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration on Friday in an extraordinary and lengthy statement.
Although the UN document is non-binding and guarantees that nations retain sovereignty over migration, the plan drew fire in a political climate where anti-immigration policies are being championed by the Trump administration and several European governments.
“The US proclaims and reaffirms its belief that decisions about how to secure its borders, and who to admit for legal residency or to grant citizenship, are among the most important sovereign decisions a state can make, and are not subject to negotiation or review, in international instruments or forums,” the US mission to the UN said.
The UN document was also fiercely contested in European states including Belgium, where the government is on the brink of collapse because a right-wing coalition partner is opposed to the pact.
“It is way too pro-migration. It does not have the nuance that it needs to have to also comfort European citizens,” Theo Francken, Belgium’s migration minister said last week. “It’s not legally binding but it’s not without legal risks.”
Most of the UN’s 193 members have sent delegates to the event in Marrakesh. Besides the US, Australia and Israel have also rejected the agreement, as has the hard-right government of Viktor Orban in Hungary.
Italy, Poland, Austria and the Czech Republic have also refused to recognise it, which will undermine the pact’s effectiveness given the recent years of increased migration in all of those countries.
Slovakia and Bulgaria have also suggested that they may not sign.
Denmark and the Netherlands have struggled to rally political support for the compact and it has also divided politicians in Germany, where Chancellor Angela Merkel’s open-door migration policy led to her losing support among voters.
The 34-page compact, agreed to in July, aims to support safe and orderly migration, reduce people trafficking and ensure basic human rights for all migrants.
It is the first agreement negotiated by states to cover all aspects of international migration.
But it does not cover refugees. Their affairs are already addressed by global agreements including the 1951 UN Refugee Convention and the 1967 Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees.
At the Marrakesh event, countries will debate migration topics before formally endorsing the plan, which grew out of a UN resolution adopted in October 2016, a year after Europe faced its worst migration crisis since the Second World War.
Despite the forum being seen as a rubber stamp for the compact, Susan Fratzke, an analyst at Washington think tank the Migration Policy Institute, said the forum would probably be only the start of a global strategy to handle the movement of people, given how contentious the issue has become.
“This has become political for some governments,” Ms Fratzke said of the US and other withdrawals.
“It’s a low-cost measure they can take for their supporters, to try to keep them.
“But the compact will go forward, regardless, whether one, three, five or eight countries decide not to participate. The compact creates the potential for dialogue.”
The UN said that there were 258 million people in the world living outside their country of birth.
The figure is expected to continue to grow because of increased connectedness, globalisation, conflict and labour flows.
At least 60,000 people have died since 2000, while crossing the sea, travelling through inhospitable territory or while being held in custody as a result of their migration.
Countries signing up to the compact have committed to 23 objectives, which include “providing basic services for migrants” and using “detention only as a measure of last resort”.
Nations should also co-operate in providing “safe and dignified return and readmission” for those deemed able to return to their home countries, the compact says.
It would forbid the collective expulsion of migrants who face a “real and foreseeable risk of death, torture and other cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment”.
A lack of infrastructure in host countries handling arrivals – a major complaint among anti-immigration activists – and the deaths of people undertaking long journeys are also addressed.
The UN maintains that the new compact is essential because the global nature of migration means governments need to agree on at least some universal standards and safeguards.
The US in December last year became the first country to announce that it would not be signing the migration compact.
The Trump administration has since taken an increasingly hostile view towards migrants, refugees and asylum seekers, recently sending troops to its border with Mexico to deter a caravan of Hondurans moving north.
But America and other opposed nations will harm themselves in the long term by shunning the new agreement, said Louise Arbour, the UN’s special representative for international migration.
“It’s for them and for their citizens to ask themselves where it leaves them as international players on difficult complex global issues,” Ms Arbour said of the countries who have opted out.
“The text specifically says that national authorities are at full liberty to have policies that distinguish between regular and irregular migrants.”
The 34-page compact aims to support safe and orderly migration, reduce people trafficking and ensure human rights