 Today, IOM celebrates the International Day of Persons with Disabilities by looking back at the year filled with challenges, yet also marked by significant progress. The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted societies at their very core and deepened pre-existing inequalities. The 1 billion people in the world living with some form of disability have been among the hardest hit. There are many reasons for this. Persons with disabilities are at higher risk of contracting COVID-19 and suffering severe health conditions as a result. Healthcare and other crucial measures such as hand washing and information on prevention have been difficult for them to access. But perhaps more worryingly, they have been more likely to experience discrimination when trying to access life-saving care and services. For migrants or displaced people who have a disability, this burden is even more drastically felt as we know that people on the move have struggled around the world to access the care and social protection they need amid the pandemic. This is precisely why, in May, the UN Secretary General highlighted the need for greater disability inclusion within the UN's COVID-19 response. IOM's Global Strategic Preparedness and Response Plan highlights the need for urgent protection and equal access to services for those most at risk, particularly migrants and displaced persons with disabilities. As we near the end of 2020, it is an opportune time for us to examine to what extent this has been put into practice in IOM's field locations around the world. In Afghanistan, one quarter of returnees who arrived from Iran or Pakistan had at least one family member with a disability and faced greater stigmatization upon return home. IOM teams in the country provided cash support and other services to protect these individuals. In the Solomon Islands and Micronesia, our staff made sure outreach activities and messages on COVID prevention were accessible to people with disabilities. In South Sudan, IOM brought together existing networks of persons with disabilities to accompany IOM staff to design the response plans for displaced communities at the onset of the pandemic. We know that the work does not stop here. We will continue to strengthen our approaches to protect persons with disabilities in the long term, whether this is to cope with the social economic impacts of the virus or to build resilience at times of crisis. And we will continue to include people with disabilities as equal partners in delivering crucial and life-saving services so that we understand the barriers they face and that we work to make our services and our information more accessible to them. Moving forward, we cannot forget that when one crisis starts or to fade, others will begin and where some barriers are removed, others will appear. Our approach must be sustained and rights-based enabling all migrants with disabilities to participate and access our services on an equal footing to others, an approach that ensures that we leave no one behind.