Editorial
On 19 September 2016, the UN General Assembly held the first-ever Summit for Refugees and Migrants. The summit addressed large movements of refugees and migrants and covered themes such as the rights of refugees and migrants, reasons behind forced migration, conditions enabling safe and orderly migration, treatment of particularly vulnerable migrants and the positive contribution of migration to societies. During the summit, the General Assembly adopted the “New York Declaration” affirming solidarity with refugees and countries affected by large movements of refugees and migrants. The declaration contains a new framework for supporting refugees and host societies, and initiated the adoption of a Global Compact on refugees and a Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration.
IOM used the summit as an opportunity to highlight the need to protect the human rights of all refugees and migrants. Too often migration is associated with high risks – in 2015, IOM recorded 5,600 fatalities worldwide of people who had lost their lives while migrating. Over 3,000 people have died in the Mediterranean Sea so far in 2016. These dangers must be addressed by creating safe and regular migration avenues. At the same time, the international community must create conditions in which migration can be a choice and not a necessity.
For IOM, 19 September 2016 represented a particularly significant date also from an institutional point of view: On the occasion of the UN Summit, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon and IOM Director General William Lacy Swing signed an agreement integrating IOM into the UN system as a Related Agency. “The positive nature of this agreement underscores that migration is not so much an issue to be addressed or a crisis to be solved as it is a human reality to be managed” said Director General Swing. This crucial step confirms the importance of the topic of migration within a global context and strengthens the existing close cooperation between IOM and other UN agencies for the future