IOM commends Phl commitment on migration

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) commended the Philippines for its steadfast commitment and unwavering leadership in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) on all aspects of migration.

The IOM, the United Nations agency for migration, also highlighted the importance of the ASEAN Consensus on the Protection and Promotion of the Rights of Migrant Workers, signed by ASEAN Leaders at the 31st ASEAN Summit during the Philippines’ chairmanship of ASEAN in November 2017.

Permanent Mission of the Philippines to ASEAN received a delegation from the IOM, led by Regional Director Maria Nenette Motus, and discussed ways to strengthen cooperation between ASEAN and the IOM.

Permanent Representative to ASEAN Elizabeth Buensuceso encouraged IOM to work with ASEAN member states at a multilateral level, and to further deepen its working relationship with the ASEAN Secretariat and the various ASEAN sectoral bodies.

She also underscored that IOM’s focus areas are spread out across all three pillars of the ASEAN Community, the Political Security, SocioCultural, and Economic Pillars, necessitating that their engagement with ASEAN is cast as wide as possible.

The meeting discussed several entry points for ASEAN-IOM possible cooperation in the following areas: safe and ethical recruitment, migrant’s health, economic empowerment of migrant workers, migrant protection, emergency response, climate change adaptation, skills development, border management, and reintegration.

Buensuceso cited possible cooperation between ASEAN and IOM on the psychosocial issues of reintegration within a peace-building/ post-conflict context, which could be done by engaging entities such as the ASEAN Institute for Peace and Reconciliation.

The IOM is an inter-governmental organization established in 1951. It has a presence in eight out of ten ASEAN member states.