ETHIOPIA, 26 February 2014 (ICMC) - Although I have been working at the Mai Aini camp in Ethiopia for the past year, I never ceased to be amazed by the sight of hundreds of children running around, playing games, washing clothes and cooking meals with hardly any adults in sight.
Placed within the hot and dusty hills of Ethopia’s northern Tigray region, The Mai Aini camp offers quite a contrast of the Iowa farmland of my youth. Despite a devastating border conflict with Eritrea from 1998-2000, Ethiopia now hosts tens of thousands of persons fleeing the very country it once fought against; approximately 1,000 of them are unaccompanied children.Read more<
Los Angeles Archbishop Jose Gomez continued to push for an overhaul of U.S. immigration policy on Friday, calling for a more humane approach that views immigrants as "humans first."
"My friends, we're talking about souls, human souls, not statistics," he told a downtown gathering of the Rotary Club of Los Angeles. "We're talking about fathers who, without warning, won't come home for dinner tonight. About parents who may not see their families again for a decade."Read more<
The International Catholic Migration Commission (ICMC-Europe) today announces the decision of the European Commission to co-finance the continued expansion of the SHARE Network during 2014-15.
Since 2007, ICMC Europe has promoted refugee resettlement as a key way in which European countries can provide durable solutions for the world's most vulnerable refugees. With our partners IOM and UNHCR, ICMC developed the European Resettlement Network to advocate for more resettlement places in Europe and to build European resettlement capacity and expertise.In 2012 ICMC Europe launched the first SHARE project to fully recognize the central role of regional and local authorities and their civil society partners in aiding newly resettled refugees. Read more<
The “externalisation” of border control<s – i.e. the process which uses various methods to transfer migration management beyond national borders – is a recent dimension of high-income countries’ migration policies. Practiced in other parts of the world such as Australia (which developed reception centres for asylum seekers in micro-States within its sphere of influence), externalisation was formalised by the European Union (EU) in 2004 and was confirmed by the European Pact on Immigration and Asylum of 2008. By increasing their vulnerability, externalisation has serious consequences for migrants and those seeking international protectionRead more<
For several years I have been saying that migration can be summed up by a series of D words: Demographics, Disasters, Demand, Disparities and Dreams. This year I am adding a new D: Desperation.Read more<
International migration is a powerful tool for reducing poverty and enhancing opportunity. That is why there are now some 232 million international migrants bringing consistent benefits to countries of destination and origin through their essential labour and remittances. Yet, this important population remains largely invisible and unheard in society. Too many live and work in the worst conditions with the least access to basic services and fundamental rights, making them disproportionately vulnerable to extortion, violence, discrimination and marginalization.Read more<
I am very happy to receive you on the occasion of the presentation of the Letters that accredit you as Ambassadors Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of your respective countries to the Holy See: Algeria, Iceland, Denmark, Lesotho, Palestine, Sierra Leone, Cape Verde, Burundi, Malta, Sweden, Pakistan, Zambia, Norway, Kuwait, Burkina Faso, Uganda and Jordan.
I thank you for the cordial words you addressed to me and also for the greetings that each of you has transmitted to me from your Head of State. I beg you to assure them of my return of them with my best wishes for their persons and for the fulfillment of their high office. Likewise I wish to greet through you the civil and religious Authorities of your Nations, as well as all your fellow-citizens, with a particular remembrance for the Catholic community.Read more<
A dialogue seven years in the making
We have been preparing for this Highlevel Dialogue for seven years,” one of the government participants said during a briefing that the International Organization for Migration (IOM) organized in Geneva on 3 July 2013, just two weeks before the civil society Hearings of the Highlevel Dialogue (HLD) at the United Nations headquarters in New York. “We have the opportunity to develop a coherent strategy”, to “pick up speed”, with “substance over process,” emphasized other participants.Read more<
Welcome to the twelfth issue of Migration Policy Practice<. This issue focuses on the upcoming United Nations High-level Dialogue (HLD) on Migration and Development. For only the second time in its history, the United Nations General Assembly will focus on international migration and its implications for development. As UN Special Representative for Migration Peter Sutherland noted in the previous issue of Migration Policy Practice, the summit in New York must generate action and deepen cooperation between States to maximize the benefits of migration for development. The HLD also provides the international community with an opportunity to underline the importance of integrating migration into the emerging post-2015 development framework. Migration was barely mentioned in year 2000 when the Millennium Development Goals, targets and indicators were framed. Today, there is much greater discussion of the case for integrating migration into the global development agenda (see, for example, IOM, 2013a).
Read more<
GENEVA, 5 November 2013 (ICMC) - The role of civil society in this year’s High-Level Dialogue on International Migration and Development (HLD) was greater than it was in the first meeting in 2006, the United Nations department of Economic and Social Affairs reported in its November newsletter.
UNDESA, the Secretariat entity responsible for the development pillar of the UN, noted that “several NGO and civil society representatives were allowed to speak in the plenary, while they also participated in roundtables either as panelists or as speakers from the floor.”Read more<
International Catholic Migration Commission (ICMC), Amnesty International, and Churches’ Commission for Migrants in Europe (CCME), and the European Council on Refugees and Exiles (ECRE) urged the European Union to step up its efforts to alleviate the suffering of civilians in Syria.
In particular they asked that EU members allow entry and grant international protection to Syrian asylum seekers, increase funding of the UN Syria Regional Response Plan, expand programs for Syrian and third-country refugee resettlement, and support the neighbouring countries receiving these refugees.
Read more<
Geneva 13 January 2013 - On this World Day of Migrants and Refugees, the International Catholic Migration Commission joins the Holy Father in celebrating the humanity, the invitation to solidarity and the offer to share in new hope and energy that migrants and refugees bring to the families, communities and countries that welcome them.Read more<
Civil society leaders at global meeting point to co-responsibility with governments for solutions in labour migration, rights and development.
PORT LOUIS, Mauritius 22 November 2012- More than 800 representatives from civil society and governments from some 160 countries gathered in Mauritius this week to discuss changes needed in labour migration, protection of migrants, promotion of their rights and development.Read more<
Key decisions-makers gather at the Sixth Global Forum on Migration and Development (GFMD) in Mauritius this week. For the second year in a row, ICMC has taken up a leading role in the coordination of the GFMD Civil Society Days. During these days organisations intend to share their expertise and develop concrete models to the better implementation of human rights for all migrants.Read more<
GENEVA, 20 June 2012—On World Refugee Day 2012, it is good to celebrate the solution of refugee resettlement, a solution that systematically saves nearly a hundred thousand lives each year. A solution that reunites families, that restores hope and dignity to human beings threatened and persecuted because of their race, religion, nationality, social group or political opinions. A solution that enables refugees to restart their lives in a country that formally welcomes them to safety and new life.Read more<
BRUSSELS, 29 March 2012—With the European Parliament vote on March 29th, the International Catholic Migration Commission (ICMC) congratulates the European Union on adopting a formal framework for welcoming refugees in need of resettlement to Europe, and expressing its commitment to human rights, refugee protection and solidarity with those most in need.Read more<
BRUSSELS, 8 December 2011—ICMC today launches its new publication "MAYDAY! Strengthening responses of assistance and protection to boat people and other migrants arriving in Southern Europe". The publication sheds light on gaps in responding to boat people and other migrants arriving in Greece, Italy, Malta and Spain. "It is not so much the arrivals of migrants and refugees that should be put to question, but rather the response mechanisms," observes Johan Ketelers, Secretary General of ICMC.Read more<
GENEVA, 2 December 2011—The Civil Society Days of the Global Forum on Migration and Development concluded with high energy at the “common space” between civil society and governments on the morning of December 1st. After two days of working sessions that built upon the recommendations of past GFMDs and brought to light new concerns, civil society presented a statement to governments calling for more engagement and leadership to combat xenophobia and promote rights-based migration policies. The statement was followed by a debate on demographics, development and positive alternatives to irregular migration, moderated by BBC correspondent Zeinab Badawi with over 700 participants present.Read more<
GENEVA, 9 November 2011—Civil society representatives from over 60 countries will convene in Geneva to propose rights-based migration policies to governments at the Global Forum on Migration and Development (GFMD) to be held from November 29th to December 2nd. 180 delegates will meet for two days to formulate recommendations on labour migration, which they will present to governments from some 130 countries on December 1st.Read more<
GENEVA, 19 August 2011—In the countdown to the 2011 Global Forum on Migration and Development, a new website providing broad information about the GFMD has been launched, together with the invitation for civil society representatives to apply now to participate directly in the 2011 Civil Society Days.Read more<
|
|
