CCRM joins hands with KHRS to organise Global Compact for Migration Workshop
Discussions focus on various issues
KUWAIT CITY, Aug 25: The Cross-Regional Center for Refugees and Migrants (CCRM) in partnership with the Kuwait Human Rights Society (KHRS) organised a “National Consultation on the Implementation of Global and Regional Frameworks on Migration” on Friday at the Inn & Go Kuwait Plaza Hotel.
The workshop focused on the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration (GCM) which is an inter-governmentally negotiated agreement, prepared under the auspices of the United Nations, that describes itself as covering “all dimensions of international migration in a holistic and comprehensive manner.” The compact was formally endorsed by the United Nations General Assembly in December 2018. The Compact is not an international treaty and not legally binding. It allows countries to remain in charge of their own immigration policy but commits signatories to improving cooperation on international migration.
“The Global Compact for Migration is seen as a step towards addressing migrants’ needs and reducing their vulnerability at their workplace and lobbying government institutions to issue national polices to protect the rights and promote the welfare of migrant workers,” stated Kuwait Human Rights Society (KHRS) Deputy Secretary General Atty Atyab Al-Shatti.
KHRS Executive Director Saleh Hasan Al Hasan outlined that the workshop aimed at introducing global frameworks on migration to civil societies and building domestic momentum for the implementation, followup, and review of these frameworks on the national level.
Civil society organizations in Kuwait, India and the Philippines as well some officials from the Ethiopian Embassy, International Organization for Migration representative and media joined in the workshop. The group agreed on the importance of tailoring global frameworks to the Kuwaiti environ as well as the GCC region as they tackled the situation of migrant workers in Kuwait and the region and to develop a number of recommendations to improve their conditions.
Migrant Forum in Asia Program Assistant Joanna Yu gave an overview of the existing Global Frameworks on Migration followed by an open forum.
The GCM dubbed as the first international document on managing migration outlines 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 250 million.
Discussions focused on various issues such as access to justice for migrant workers and their families, labour recruitment and skills, information and the use of technology, recruitment reforms, status of domestic workers and new developments in the region. The discussion built on the latest output of the Abu-Dhabi Dialogue, which is a regional consultative process bringing together countries of origins in Asia and Gulf countries focusing on improving the governance of migration.