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News & Updates

Asian Nations Call for Migration Dialogue¹

September 2005

Representatives from twelve Asian countries and fifteen international agencies and NGOs called for improved regional cooperation and the mainstreaming of international migration in national policy development in the Asia-Pacific region on 26 August 2005.

At the end of a 3-day seminar in Bangkok on the social implications of international migration, jointly organized by UNESCAP, IOM, UNFPA and the Asian Forum of Parliamentarians on Population and Development (AFPPD) in Bangkok, over 50 Asian senior officials and parliamentarians recommended the creation of a new regional framework to facilitate regular dialogue on international labour migration in the region.

The seminar, chaired by Cambodian Minister of Women's Affairs, Dr. Ing Kantha Phavi, called on all governments in the region to sign up to existing regional agreements to counter human trafficking, concluding that international migration should be explicitly incorporated into national economic and social policy-making, if coherent policies were to emerge.

Other issues discussed at the seminar included transparent recruitment processes, insurance and consular protection for migrant workers, the enforcement of labour standards, the contribution of remittances to economic development, the impact of brain drain on the region, the vulnerability of migrants to communicable diseases, and the impact of international migration on families left at home.

For more information, please contact:

David Lazarus
Chief, UN Information Services
Bangkok, Thailand
Tel: +66 (0) 2 288 1861
E-mail: unisbkk.unescap@un.org

or

Chris Lom
IOM Bangkok
Tel. +66 (0)1 927 5215
E-mail: clom@iom.int

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¹ IOM Press Briefing Notes, 26 August 2005.