Unfinished business: UN migrant pact inked, but foes remain

MARRAKECH, Morocco (AP) — Seeking to remind the world that migrants are people, too, a U.N. migration conference ended Tuesday with pledges to put a landmark new accord to work, but it left unfinished business on ending the divisive debate between nationalists and globalists as migrant detention centers, caravans and deaths at sea or in deserts make headlines.

U.N. officials and governments touted the adoption of the Global Compact on Migration by 164 countries a day earlier, but with signs that it was already fraying and still the source of disgruntlement from populist, right-wing politicians who see the call for global cooperation as a threat to national sovereignty.

The agreement is a sort of one-stop-shop to bring together existing, and disparate U.N. agreements that touch on migration. It is rich in lofty — if ill-defined and uncertain — ambitions typical of U.N. technocracy: Its top officials trumpeted a new “network on migration” and a “startup fund” linked to the U.N. migration agency.

They envision a regular check-up on implementation of the pact every four years, starting in 2022.

Nasser Bourita, foreign minister of host country Morocco, said simply: “We don’t want this compact just to be ink on paper.”

Officials will be at pains to entice back countries like the U.S., Italy, Australia and Hungary that shunned the accord — and stem any further defections. Brazil’s newly elected populist government said the Latin American country will pull out in January.

The U.N. General Assembly will meet Dec. 19 to formally endorse the pact, and opponents who stayed away in Marrakech could voice their concerns there.

U.N. officials aren’t giving up hopes of getting them on board.

“This is not take it or leave it. I understand that people are a bit puzzled about the expression ‘compact,’” said Louise Arbour, a Canadian jurist who was the U.N. secretary-general’s point person at the conference and has sought to dispel “false” information alleging it will force nations to change their laws.