 Good morning, Chairperson, Ambassador Idico, Director-General of IOM, Ambassador William Swing, Ambassadors, Excellencies, Distinguished Delegates, fellow migrants, if there are some here, all protocol observed. I must say that I'm very honored to have been invited to join you on an issue which is part of my own history. I have been a migrant, and the experiences we talk about are also part of my tragic treat of life. So I have a huge empathy for those still who are migrants. In preparation for this talk this morning, I came across with thorough, deep and complete information about migration. I have to thank you and congratulate you for the kind of information which is provided to decision makers, to civil society organizations like us, to citizens in general, to understand the complexity and the different dimensions of what migration means. Of course, this is an issue which today is a hot issue. It divides public opinion. Governments lose rating because of migration. Some even lose election because of migration. Presidents are wary to take very bold decisions because they do not know whether they are not going to be impinged because of migration. But I want to say that migration is a manifestation of development, many developments, which happened in recent century, I think 20th century, and now at the beginning of 21st century. So we should celebrate the fact that people today have much more information. You press a button and information will be available all over the world. So people are, in terms of information, much, much closer than ever before. Movements are also easy. People do travel by road, train, by plane. It's much easier to cross continents today than it has ever been before. But more importantly, is that there's much more freedom of choice. People have much more opportunity to choose where to live, what to do, and because they can move, of course they will go where they feel is the best place for them to realize their aspirations. And this is a trend, in my view, which is going to increase than decrease. So, as a human family, I think we just have to learn to be comfortable with it. And to learn how to manage it in a way we all continue to belong to the same space, which is the space of a family, in which we have a right, whether you were born in Mozambique like me, or you were born in Iceland, whether you were born in Asia or you were born in Latin America. All of us, we have a space and we need to have a sense of belonging and sharing whatever is available, and we feel we are entitled to. Migration is happening in many ways, in many directions, from developing countries to developing ones. From developing countries to developing countries. And even, let me talk of my own continent, Africa. We have much more movement of people inside Africa than what is being perceived as people from Africa elsewhere. We do have, I mean, it happens also from developed countries to developing countries, which we do not talk about. What has made people uncomfortable, most probably it's not, it's not essentially the numbers of people, but I think it's the circumstances in which you assume. Because as I'm saying, if we were to number Africans moving within the continent, then we would be talking of millions, while from Africa to Europe we would talk maybe of hundreds of thousands. Let me give an example. There is migration from North Europe to Southern Europe, because people now, they stop working at the age of 55. They are very well professionally, they have resources, and they decide, instead of living in Sweden or in Norway, they are going to live in Spain, Portugal, and because it's much warmer, it's much pleasant, and they migrate. And it's not a problem to anyone. We also have people who are coming to live. Let me give you the example of my second country, which is South Africa. We have lots of people who are coming to live in Cape Town because it's a beautiful place, and people can live there, and it's not a problem. We even now, because European economies are under strain, we are having movement of people coming to Africa, because Africa is now good news. Economic growth is there. Opportunities are there. It's not only opportunities of investment, opportunities to work, and we are having thousands and thousands of you just look at planes, thousands of people who are coming to look for opportunities to work in our countries. But this is not news. It's normal. It's fine. What becomes news? It's when people move from Africa to Europe, when people move from Eastern Europe to Western Europe, when people move from Asia to Europe, and when they move, of course, from South America to the US, then we have a backup, and we are all very close. Why is it? I think we are growing fearful of diversity. People are not necessarily uncomfortable because they feel threatened directly. They feel threatened because the difference which is brought by those who have a skin color like mine, who have a religion which is different, who have cultural practices which are different, all these make people feel uncomfortable. But according to statistics which I got from the migration actually, there are lots of benefits which don't seem to be known to many. Immigrants from developing economies contributed an estimate of 40 percent of labor force growth in advanced economies between 1980 and 2010. 40 percent is almost half. As for leading global economies, employers reporting difficulties in filling jobs were 12 percent in the UK, 21 percent in France, 24 percent in China, 40 percent in Germany and US, and 64 percent in India. I'm just giving examples. There are opportunities which are not being filled and looking at migration as an element which can help to make our economies, develop the economy's work, it should be a window of opportunity instead of discomfort. Migrants contribute greatly growth to countries of origin and their host communities. The diaspora have an important role to play in helping their communities back home, and I'm sure you have heard of these numbers before. Global remittances flows, including those two high-income countries, were an estimate of 529 billion in 2012 alone. Developing countries received about 401 billion in remittances during again 2012. So, there are flows of resources which are important. Actually, the 400 billion I'm talking about are much more than what is known as eight developments. So, are these information known for the majority of our people, both in countries of origin and receiving countries? Wouldn't it be important to make this information available so that we look at migration in its positive aspects, not necessarily in the negative ones which I'm going also to be talking about? Migration has brought to surface some of the ugliest perceptions and preconceptions among us as human family. Discrimination on the basis of race has become rough. Gender, discrimination against women who migrate and humiliate in the way they are being treated, even children, discrimination on the basis of class, not all of race and gender, but of class, discrimination on the basis of religion. Anything which is different from the other has come to surface and it has created an environment of discomfort as I mentioned. I think diversity is a strength, not weakness. We need to learn to live with diversity and when we are in the beginning of 21st century having such a sophisticated human rights and humanitarian laws where we talk of equality and the rights to everyone it sounds a contradiction that those instruments are more and more sophisticated and we talk about them but our practices are telling us that we are really very uncomfortable with living with diversity, with accepting other people as equal to us. So I think this is a moral dilemma of our times. I think it's a question we have to raise seriously and say what is it which goes in our minds but in our feelings there is something completely different and we go to the point actually of people dying and when they die the reactions if it's this or those it's completely different. It's not only discrimination, it's even the value of human life which is different when we are talking in some circumstances or when we are talking other circumstances. So I want to raise this of course as I said at the beginning the economic benefits of this, the technological benefits of this, the advantages of this but at the same time there is a huge moral issue which we have to address. The declaration of human rights which is the flag of any of our international standards, I think it has to be recalled here and to be reminded to all of us. It's not a question only which was relevant in circumstances it was adopted, maybe today we have to re-adopt and discuss it even more. This is important because we are going to be discussing I think in the panel the post-2015 agenda in which we are going to say of the major shifts the first one and the most important is leave no one behind and these are not only words it means we need to re-engineer our thinking, our institutions, our way of organizing the economies of the world in a way we are not going to leave anyone behind. In a period of 15 years how this is going to happen it cannot be business as usual. I want therefore to submit to this in the context of migration. A few things I think governments both north and south have to revisit the way they present themselves in terms of migration to their constituencies. I think there is clearly and you know I'm an activist so I'll talk my language. I think there is a lack of courage to adopt what we know is right. Instead of making of migration an issue of winning of losing elections it's a question of saying what is the obligations of all of us in sharing in sharing resources in sharing space in sharing knowledge building on diversity as a strength instead of fearing diversity you have to go out and explain this to your own people and constituencies will understand particularly when we present the numbers so instead of playing with human life between elections and not elections I think the courage of leadership and to do the right thing and to explain the right thing because we only have to benefit and we know we benefit much more than we can think we lose. I know there's a huge responsibilities from countries of origin of migration. Yes of course some cases it's because of conflict other cases it's because of disasters other cases it's political instability. It is important that we fix our homes as well. We create opportunities where everyone will feel comfortable to stay and to meet his or her aspirations at home and yes then the difference it's not that we are not going to have migration but the quality of migration we are going to have it will be different. So it will be a question of quality. Governments both sides I think they need to do much more and with much more sense of responsibility and in my view I think we cannot get used to the spectacle of what what is happening in the Mediterranean. We cannot get used to that. It's unacceptable that in the middle of what is possible to do it's almost every day we'll see people dying or being moved as commodities. I know there is crime involved in smuggles those who are encouraging people to promise their promising jobs here and there but again I think the might of responsibility between governments both north and south it's much bigger it cannot be businesses usual when we have just this year I mean last year 2014 we are told that more than 5000 people died or disappeared they are unknown because of this. These are human lives and as I believe if no more robust action is taken these numbers will increase in 2015 we'll have even bigger numbers. I think this is unacceptable. I'm talking of government but I'm talking also of you know human lives are not a commodity to trade and of course sometimes it's migration as such and of course it's trafficking which is involved in this the channels and even those who are the barons of smuggling in many cases they are known in many cases they are known. I think we should demand that this smuggling and the proportions which are happening because they are reducing human lives to a commodity of trade and pay and sell it is unacceptable in this proportion. So I think it's important that drastic measures are taken against this. Then I wanted also to mention an issue which I believe it's important to repeat although it's almost obvious. I think the way migrants are treated in countries where what we can call the receiving I'm told that at least 50 million irregular migrants in the world are registered. 50 million people. When I say it is known as the conditions in which those and now I'm speaking as a woman and I'm speaking as a mother or grandmother actually children women while we are professioning institutions part of it I think it's important to one to improve seriously the conditions in which we receive migrants wherever they come from and I'm saying this because even in my small country Mozambique we do receive migrants we have them coming from Bangladesh coming from you name it maybe they are just in transit but the conditions in which whether they are in transit whether it's country it's a receiving country the conditions in which migrants are being treated is really unacceptable and I think we need to make much better governments have to make much better. I think also we need to train much better migrant officers who are involved whether it's police in borders this is a reality which is not going to go away. Migration is part of our life as we think of better systems for education for health we also need to think of best institutions and proceeding in migration because it's not going to go away it is part of it. I think we need to increase this this thing which we always talk about as governance in both sites involving much more people to understand and to participate these are not issues which are related to government alone communities have to be much more made aware of the risks you are a young woman you are a woman you are young person you don't go you don't risk your life without having the certainty of in which conditions you go but how much do we take the time to explain to our own people within communities engaging community leaders to explain the risks of moving without the certainty of where you go how you go what's going to happen to the other side so when I talk of governance I think also it's education of people to take risk but they're taking a risk of which they are completely conscious of I think we need to open up to take the reality that the kind of economies we have and the way they marginalize young people particularly young people educated young people it is not only a question of employment it's a question of work so we need to think the way we combine creating jobs but also creating conditions for young people to self-employ themselves otherwise the numbers of young people who move will take these risks it's not going to reduce so when I bring the issue of governance it's not only in receiving countries but in countries of origin it's countries where the source of the problem come from in which we need to be much more robust in creating opportunities for every single person where we live so that every citizen will be comfortable to live in the thrice and then the numbers and the quality of migration will be different and the quality of migration the numbers will be much much much much in our control than it seems to be It's easy for someone like me to say what I'm saying because I don't have national responsibility. But at the same time, it is also a concern which is our daily lives. As I said, I'm a grandmother, I'm a mother, and I'm an African woman. Any time we see those things, it's our dignity, which is diminished. And because of that, we also take responsibility, but not only to take responsibility. We have one to be part of the solution, and not to be seen as only part of the problem, but part of the solution. I know that with the expertise which is gathered in this room, we'll be able to think better. We have a question, what we have not only to do better, but to do more. And within the next post-15 agenda, which we all are going to sign up as government, but our hope will sign up also as research institutions, as business community, as civil society organizations, will sign up to have an agenda which is going to make us much more humane, which is going to make us really responsible for becoming my brother's keeper, and leave no one behind. I thank you. Everybody need a pen if you eat today.