Migrant pact adopted over U.S. opposition

More than 160 countries adopted a sweeping international accord on migration Monday, after the U.N. secretary-general defended against the “myths” and falsehoods that critics had directed at the deal.

Addressing a two-day conference in Morocco, the secretary-general, Antonio Guterres, noted that disinformation had inflamed debate on the accord — the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration — and had encouraged a rash of rejections by some governments.

The 165 countries gathered in Marrakech approved the agreement by consensus, defying the United States and other countries that had withdrawn amid concerns about migrant flows and national sovereignty.

The decision in Marrakech is the culmination of nearly two years of consultations and negotiations to produce an accord to promote international cooperation in handling migration. It will return to the United Nations next week to be formally adopted by the General Assembly.

The text of the accord was approved in July by every member of the United Nations except the United States.

But it has since gotten caught up in a nationalist movement in Europe that has centered on the issue of immigration and prompted around a dozen countries to reject the compact outright, or to pull back from endorsing it in Morocco.

Guterres dismissed as “myth No. 1” the idea that the accord would force countries to adopt migrant-friendly laws and regulations. The compact is not legally binding, but instead proposes a road map for cooperation that explicitly recognizes state sovereignty and governments’ rights to decide their own immigration policies.

Moreover, Guterres said, regulated migration is needed if developed countries are to maintain economic growth when they face declining birthrates and aging populations. Coordinated action can also combat the high human cost of unregulated migration, which is exploited by predatory smugglers.

More than 60,000 migrants have died in hazardous journeys while trying to reach wealthier countries, Guterres said.

“This is a source of collective shame,” he added.

The 34-page document asserts that “no state can address migration alone” and outlines 23 objectives. They include the collection of better data on the movement of migrants, the strengthening of legal paths to migration, efforts to combat human trafficking, and cooperation to ease the safe return of migrants to their countries of origin.

“It doesn’t say migration is a good thing or a bad thing, it’s a thing,” Louise Arbour, the U.N. official who led negotiations on the compact, told reporters in Geneva last week, emphasizing the need for the international community to address and mitigate that global reality.

Work began after members of the United Nations, including the United States under President Barack Obama, approved a declaration in 2016 saying that no country could manage international migration alone, and agreed to work on a pact. But President Donald Trump’s administration withdrew its support a year ago, saying that parts of the compact were “inconsistent with U.S. immigration and refugee policies.”

Under Prime Minister Viktor Orban, a fiercely anti-immigrant leader, Hungary has dismissed the compact as a “pro-migration document.” Austria, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Poland and Slovakia have also rejected the compact, as have Australia and Israel.

Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany has vocally defended the migration agreement, but she has faced criticism for her stance on immigration from members of her party and, like her counterparts in France and the Netherlands, she faces pressure from parties on the far right.

“We are not establishing a new right to migrate,” Guterres insisted Monday. “What we are establishing is the obligation to respect the human rights of migrants.”