Permanent Representative of Bangladesh to the United Nations, Ambassador Rabab Fatima, said on Tuesday that they need strong political will to ensure the rights, well-being, and dignity of migrants.

“It is imperative to foster global solidarity to combat rising xenophobia and intolerance, and discrimination against migrants,” she said.

Ambassador Fatima was speaking at a panel discussion at the High-Level Event to launch the first biennial report of the UN Secretary-General on the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration.

Highlighting Bangladesh’s close association with the adoption of the Global Compact for Migration, she reiterated Bangladesh’s commitment to its implementation. And as a demonstration of this abiding commitment, Bangladesh joined the ‘Champion’s initiative’ led by the UN Network on Migration to implement the compact, she stressed.

Putting spotlight on the daunting challenges faced by the migrants in the COVID-19 pandemic situation due to the job losses, salary cuts, and lack of access to social security she commended the report of the Secretary General for providing practical policy recommendations to tackle the ongoing crisis.

She also thanked the Secretary General for recognizing the joint statement on the ‘Impact of Covid-19 on Migrants’, which was co-led by Bangladesh following the outbreak of the pandemic.

The statement was eventually endorsed by 103 member states.

Endorsing the 360-degree approach to benefit from the expertise and experience of the national, regional and global stakeholders she emphasized the need for enhanced global cooperation for better management of migration governance.

In this connection, Ambassador Fatima called for harnessing the development potentials of migration and urged the UN and other international bodies to support the national governments in their effort to align the migration related activities with the 2030 Agenda.

She called for enhanced global partnership for the skilling, re-skilling and up-skilling of migrant workers.

She also stressed the importance of providing them with sufficient funds for coping up with the ‘new normal’ of the post-COVID job market.

Secretary General of UN and Director General of IOM delivered the opening remarks at the event.

This was followed by a high level panel discussion.

Among others, Foreign Ministers of Portugal, Guinea-Bissau and El Salvador, Permanent Representatives of Canada, Mexico, Morocco, Ghana, Nepal and other distinguished delegates attended the event.