19 October 2015: Addressing the eighth Summit Meeting of the Global Forum on Migration and Development (GFMD), UN Deputy Secretary-General Jan Eliasson underscored the priority of saving lives and called for a stronger focus on refugee protection, non-discrimination, increased preparedness and shared responsibilities. Noting that Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey have been at the center of the region’s refugee crisis, “paying a high price” for the war in Syria, Eliasson said the Forum should work closely with the UN System, in particular with the Global Migration Group, to integrate migration into national development plans.
The Forum took place on 14-16 October 2015, in Istanbul, Turkey, with the participation of 600 delegates from 150 countries and 30 international organizations, governments, academia, civil society and the UN, at a time when there are around 240 million international migrants and more than 60 million refugees and forcibly displaced persons.
In an opening address, Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu said Turkey hosts the largest number of refugees, and offers US$8 billion in aid to Syrian refugees, while the international community offers a total of US$417 million. Feridun Hadi Sinirlioğlu, Minister of Foreign Affairs, said that his country, as GFMD Chair until the end of 2015, aims to: enhance and raise the visibility and relevance of the GFMD’s work; increase understanding of the dynamics of migration; and transform it into an element of development. He urged supporting peace processes to end ongoing conflicts, establishing and enforcing safe zones to protect civilians from indiscriminate acts of violence, and fighting terrorism.
Speakers also stressed that: migration has the potential to promote development in origin and host countries through trade, investment, cultural exchange and knowledge networks, but that partnerships must be strengthened to ensure that human mobility contributes to sustainable development; and the GFMD can play a role in developing and vetting the indicators that must be developed to ensure that the aspects of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) relevant to migration are effectively implemented.
Eliasson said tackling the root causes of forced or involuntary migration is a key element of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, including in SDG 10 on reducing inequalities, and noted the need for migration-related indicators.
Two special sessions addressed the ‘Future of the Forum’ and the ‘Platform for Partnerships.’ Round tables convened on: partnerships to promote inclusion and protect the human rights of migrants in order to achieve the full benefits of migration; reducing the human and financial costs of international migration, particularly labor migration; mainstreaming migration into planning at the sectoral level; migration in the context of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development; international cooperation and responsibility sharing to enhance human development and human security for those forcibly displaced across international borders; and public-private partnerships (PPPs) to support migrant/diaspora entrepreneurship and job creation.
Discussions in the roundtables emphasized: the connection between wider legal channels for migration and protecting migrants’ rights; reducing the costs that migrants bear when they send money home; reforming the recruitment process to protect against exploitation; shared responsibility to address forced migration; and the role of employers and entrepreneurs as an important aspect of the connection between migration and development. Participants also called for an international framework to protect and assist migrants through the special circumstances of forcible displacement.
The GFMD is a voluntary, informal, non-binding and government-led process to advance understanding and cooperation on the mutually reinforcing relationship between migration and development, and to foster practical and action-oriented outcomes. [GFMD Press Release, 19 October] [GFMD Press Release, 16 October] [UN Press Release] [GFMD Website]