Moderador,
Please, allow me to start by welcoming Ambassadors Juan José Gómez Camacho and Jürg Lauber, Permanent Representatives of Mexico and Switzerland to United Nations Organization respectively.
I extend an affectionate greeting to Ms. Louise Arbour, UN Special Representative for International Migration and Secretary General of Intergovernmental Conference.
We appreciate panelists´ presentations which have been very concise, instructive, and informative. The elements addressed by them largely coincide with those that I will tackle in my speech and that I sum up in three points as follows:
1. It is necessary to change people´s minds regarding migrants in order to efficiently understand the challenge set by massive migrations, to leave behind stigmatization and criminalization as well as to gather efforts for providing protection and assistance. Walls and physical or legal barriers may obstruct migration and refuge, however, they will never solve the deep and multifaceted causes which provoke that millions of human beings emigrate every year. Those barriers encourage trafficking in persons, smuggling of migrants and all of which increases racism and xenophobia. Border management repressive policies are the best recipe to achieve failure.
2. We cannot turn our backs on the rise of smuggling of migrants. It has become a worldwide business which creates great profits for human traffickers and organized crime. That is the reason why, we must reinforce the international cooperation to comprehensively face the challenges set by irregular migration and combat smuggling. The “bad guys” are the human traffickers not the migrants.
3. A good Compact, no matter its binding condition, should be translated into better protection of human rights and promotion of gender equality and empowering migrants. This process should effectively integrate objectives and goals established in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development containing three essential principles: development, peace, and human rights.
I thank you very much.
(Embacuba Austria)
