Bangladesh has given some comfort to the Rohingyas by sheltering them to avoid a destabilised situation, Foreign Secretary Shahidul Haque said yesterday. Speaking at a national consultation on global compact on migration (GCM), a proposed global mechanism to ensure safe, orderly and regular migration, he also made distinction between migrants, refugees and displaced people and called for measures accordingly. During the consultation, jointly organised by the foreign ministry, International Organisation for Migration (IOM), International Labour Organisation (ILO) and the Swiss Agency for Development & Cooperation (SDC) at the Bangabandhu International Convention Centre (BICC) were asked to contribute by providing concrete recommendations to develop a national position on managing migration.

Once the Bangladesh position has been set, it will be further communicated into the agenda setting process of the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration (GCM). The secretariat of the GCM is aiming to finalise the approach for adoption at the UN General Assembly in September 2018.

Representatives from the government authorities including relevant ministries, departments and agencies, members of NGOs, CSOs, academics, researchers, UN Agencies, development partners, and private sector gathered for the consultation and gave their opinion as to how Bangladesh’s interests, in particular in respect towards migrant’s basic rights, can be ensured in the future world migration governance.

They also called for making this compact a binding instrument for the member states. Foreign Secretary Haque in his concluding remarks said, “I also want this. But, it seems highly unlikely.”

He also talked about the need for the compact to be conceptualised as a ‘‘legal instrument comprising of laws, norms, mechanisms, provisions and practices aimed at assisting states and other stakeholders in governing migration, ensuring rights of migrants and for the benefit of all.” The foreign secretary emphasised that migration should be safe, orderly, regular, as well as responsible, saying that the compact is intended as an internationally negotiated framework, which should consider the normative framework in protecting the human rights of migrants. Swiss ambassador René Holenstein said, “In order to be effective, we must make political choices about it. Our three priority choices are labour mobility, trafficking and migrants’ contribution to development – all of these issues can’t be discussed in isolation.”

Governance is the key to achieving the process of migration and there must be a political will to implement the process, he added. The participants laid emphasis on the need to ensure fundamental rights of migrants through an equity based legislation and a transparent mechanism for managing migration.

Chair of the parliamentarian caucus on migration and development Israfil Alam, secretary-in-charge for expatriates’ welfare and overseas employment ministry Nomita Halder, IOM Bangladesh chief Sarat Dash and ILO country director Srinivas B Reddy also spoke on the occasion. The consultation was structured into five thematic sessions, mirroring the thematic priorities identified in the GCM modality.

The issues dealt at these thematic sessions are addressing drivers of migration, including adverse effects of climate change, natural disasters and human-made crises, through protection and assistance, sustainable development, poverty eradication, conflict prevention and resolution and Contributions of migrants and diasporas to all dimensions of sustainable development, including remittances and portability of earned benefits, smuggling of migrants, trafficking in persons and contemporary forms of slavery, including appropriate identification, protection and assistance to migrants and trafficking victims, human rights of all migrants, social inclusion, cohesion and all forms of discrimination, including racism, xenophobia and intolerance, irregular migration and regular pathways including decent work, labour mobility, recognition of skills and qualifications and other relevant aspects and international cooperation and governance of migration in all its dimensions, including at borders, on transit, entry, return, readmission, integration and reintegration.