Permanent Mission of India
Geneva
Statement by India
at the 108th Session of the Council of the International Organization for Migration delivered by Amb. Virander Paul, Deputy Permanent Representative, on 30 November 2017
Item: 11 General Debate
The delegation of India conveys its warm felicitations to H.E. Ms. Marta Mauras, Permanent Representative of Chile, for her election as the Chairperson and to other newly elected Bureau Members. We assure you of our fullest cooperation. We also wish to express our gratitude to the outgoing Chair, Ambassador John Quinn, the Permanent Representative of Australia and other bureau members for furthering our collective efforts to strengthen IOM’s activities in the crucial and formative first year of the IOM-UN relationship. We also take this opportunity to welcome Cook Islands and Cuba as the new members of IOM and the grant of observer status to the State of Kuwait and other organizations.
2. My delegation appreciates the leadership of Director General Ambassador William Lacy Swing for his forward-looking approach and for initiating innovative approaches in the Organization. We take positive note of his report outlined under the three core themes of coherence, continuity and change. We also recognize the good work carried out by IOM the field offices in several unsafe and challenging environments.
3. The Sustainable Development Goals recognize migration as one of the core enablers of inclusive and sustainable development and its multi-dimensional reality.
4. It is important to ensure that every stage of the migrant life cycle is informed with safety, dignity and rights of the migrants irrespective of their age, gender and status. While addressing the issue of mass exodus of people, we must not lose sight of the distinction between refugees and migrants.
5. In all of this, IOM as the global lead agency on migration has an important role to play by using its capacity, expertise and experience, for facilitating and managing migration through international cooperation and the Government and society based comprehensive approaches.
6. We envisage and support an enhanced role for IOM, especially in the run-up to the Global Compact on Migration and its follow-up, keeping in mind its core mandate and the link between migration and economic, social and cultural development as well as to the right of the freedom of movement recognized in its constitution.
7. We appreciate the invaluable technical and policy expertise and support provided by IOM during the consultations phase for the development of a global compact for safe, orderly and regular migration, including the various national and regional consultative processes and international dialogue forums. We request IOM to continue to provide its invaluable support during the stocktaking phase, the intergovernmental negotiations phase and in the lead-up to and during the intergovernmental conference to be held in 2018 and beyond.
8. We welcome the strengthened coordination and collaboration between IOM and the United Nations system and expect this relationship to lead to greater system-wide coherence and tangible benefits, including cost efficiency and effectiveness in programme implementation.
9. We would recommend to IOM to embark on a path of assessing and reporting its programme and activities on quantifiable parameters, based on the principles of outcome-based assessment. An institutional mechanism should be in place to receive feedback from end-users and beneficiaries on the quality of services and to seek suggestions aimed at continuous improvement of the programme and its delivery. Analysis of IOM’s cost of operations viz-a-viz peers should be carried out routinely.
10. We encourage IOM to further enhance its engagement with migrants and their families, in consultation with the States, through innovative use of social media that has emerged as a powerful tool for dissemination of information and gathering of useful feedback on various issues including first-hand information from targeted users in a cost-effective manner.
11. We welcome the Program and Budget for the year 2018 reflecting the changing nature of the organization, geared towards addressing the ‘frontier issues’ as outlined by the DG and as mandated by Member-States.
12. India, being a major country of origin, destination and transit of migrants - reiterates its commitment to IOM in its efforts towards bringing a humane approach and order to international migration.
13. Thank you.
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