New York, 27 February 2019:
Today, Bangladesh’s Foreign Secretary Md. Shahidul Haque under scored the importance of geopolitics in global migration governance in the context of Rohingya humanitarian Crisis while speaking as a panelist at the ‘High-level Debate on International Migration and Development’ convened by the President of the UN General Assembly as a part of the ongoing UN’s Migration Week. At the same time, he informed the meeting about Bangladesh’s National Migration Framework which received much appreciation.
Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean Ms. Alicia Bárcena Ibarra; Directorate General for Development and Cooperation of the European Commission (DG DEVCO) Ms. Henriette Geiger and Secretary-General of the International Organization of Employers (IOE) Roberto Suárez Santos were his co-panelists. The Permanent Representative of Spain Ambassador Agustino moderated the panel.
Prior participating this panel, Foreign Secretary Haque moderated a High-level briefing session organized by the Co-Chairs of the Friends of Migration. Director General (IOM) briefed the Member States on newly established UN Network on Migration. Bangladesh Foreign Secretary informed the audience about our National Migration Framework and elaborated its usefulness in solving complex issues such as mixed migration, human trafficking, and irregular migration through a comprehensive approach. His idea of dealing human mobility comprehensively under such framework received sincere appreciation from the Director General of IOM, the Permanent representative of Ireland and many others.
Meeting with the President of the UN General Assembly
Foreign Secretary Md. Shahidul Haque met Ms. María Fernanda Espinosa, President of the UN General Assembly (PGA) at the sideline of UN Migration week. During this meeting, the PGA lauded about Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s proactive leadership on issues pertaining to climate change, culture of peace and Rohingya humanitarian crisis. She also praised Bangladesh’s responsible role as the present Chair of the ‘Platform for Disaster Displacement (PDD)’ in protecting the safety, dignity and rights of the people displaced as a result of climate change.
Foreign Secretary Shahidul Haque thanked PGA for putting her trust on Bangladesh and appointing Bangladesh and Spain as co-facilitators for the ongoing intergovernmental consultation process on determining modalities for International Migration Review Forum (IMRF).Foreign Secretary invites PGA to attend a multi-stakeholder conference on migration to be held at Cox’s Bazar in May. PGA commended the Bangladesh for putting high importance on multilateralism and acknowledged our constructive engagement in various UN discourses. She praised the leadership of Ambassador Masud Bin Momen, the Permanent Represent of Bangladesh.
Yesterday, Foreign Secretary participated a day-long event ‘Expert Symposium on international migration and development’ organized by UN DESA. Permanent Mission of Bangladesh hosted an evening reception on the occasion of ‘Migration Week’ at Mission’s Bangabandhu Auditorium. Foreign Secretary made brief remarks as the special guest. Here, he applauded the instrumental role of the Civil Society in achieving Global Migration Compact. He announced that a multi-stakeholder event on migration will be hosted by Bangladesh Government in Cox’s Bazar in May. Foreign Secretary urged all stakeholders to work actively to combat the challenges of implementing both the Global Compact on Migration (GCM) and the Global Compact on Refugees (GCR) along with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Tomorrow, Foreign Secretary will attend few more important events on migration including taking part as a panelist in IOM’s International Dialogue on Migration.
Noted, the UN Migration week commenced since January 26 which will continue until February 28.
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