Over 150 countries formally approve Global Compact on Migration

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Over 150 countries around the world formally adopted on Monday the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration.

The adoption was made at the opening session of the UN Intergovernmental Conference on Migration in the Moroccan city of Marrakesh.

The Global Compact on Migration was agreed upon by the member states of the United Nations on July 13, 2018.

The document is the first-ever inter-governmentally negotiated agreement to cover all dimensions of international migration in a holistic and comprehensive manner.

Speaking at the opening of the conference, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said that more than 80 percent of the world's migrants move between countries in a safe and orderly way but unregulated migration bears a terrible human cost.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres (C) arrives at the conference hall in Marrakesh to attend a United Nations conference on migration on December 10, 2018. /VCG Photo

More than 60,000 migrants have died on the move since 2000, he noted, stressing that this is a source of "collective shame, and of course behind every number is a person, a woman, a child, a man, who simply dreams for what anyone of us dream, opportunity, dignity, and a better life."

He insisted that all human beings must have their human rights respected and their dignity upheld.

The compact lays out a cooperative framework that is comprised of 23 objectives with each objective containing a commitment and a range of actions considered to be relevant policy instruments and best practices.

(Top image: A general view shows the venue where the Intergovernmental Conference to Adopt the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration, takes place in Marrakesh, Morocco, December 10, 2018. /VCG Photo)

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Source(s): Xinhua News Agency