 This is the second session of this year's International Dialogue on Migration. This is a particularly crucial moment, first of all, a time when member states and all other relevant actors are involved in the consultation phase of the Global Compact on Migration. As you know, we're just going next week on Monday and Tuesday to New York for the fourth thematic session. We're coming in now on the heels of the New York Declaration on Refugees and Migrants that was adopted by member states at the UN General Assembly on the 19th of September last year. And we are coming to this dialogue today at a time when the international community is already on a new path toward cooperation and action, toward safer, more closer, more orderly and regular migration. Now, at that New York Summit, which a number of you attended, member states made some very important commitments to strengthen the global governance of migration. First of all, by bringing IOM into the UN system after 65 years operating independently but in collaboration with the UN. Secondly, and perhaps most importantly, through the development of a global compact for safe, orderly and regular migration, in addition to a global compact on refugees and we're coordinating very closely with our traditional partner UNHCR to make sure we're keeping one another informed and we're going forward together on both of these compacts. Now, we have a lot to build on. We didn't start yesterday. This goes back at least 20 or 30 years and more recently in 2015 we had four or five major agreements, which by the way constituted one of the incentives for IOM to become part of the UN system. First of all, we had the most important one, of course, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. This is an agenda that was approved in September of 2015. We already had in March of that year the disaster risk reduction framework in Sendai, Japan. In July, of course, we got the Addis Ababa Action Agenda on financing for development. And then of course in December the Paris Climate Change Agreement. But we also have a whole body of international human rights law and labor standards and we have international transnational criminal law. So all of these agreements and norms give us a pretty solid basis for consulting on and negotiating a global compact on migration. But I think we have to say and I use the word advisedly that we have an historic opportunity. This is what I've been calling a rendezvous with history because it's not likely to come our way again. And a lot of people's well-being and even their lives depend on what we can all do to establish this global compact. There's just an awful lot of people out there on the move who are very vulnerable. They're not covered by any international legal framework. Not that this is likely to be such an international framework or binding agreement. But we need some common understandings and commitments that say we want to give these people attention and support. Now the global compact invites us to do a number of things. First of all to move away from the currently reactive, unidimensional, populist and very toxic approach to migration governance in which migration has become a negative word despite an entire history of migrants' contributions to all of our societies. We're there also we want to reach a consensus on a comprehensive long-term, multifaceted policy on migration. We want migrants to be able to move in a safe orderly and dignified way. And we want governments to be able to manage migration much more humanely and responsibly than in the past. And we believe that if we reach that consensus that shared responsibility will create shared opportunities because we know the contribution migrants make. I'll give you one statistic. The latest McKinsey Global Institute report on migration says that although migrants still constitute only about 3% of the world's population, they're producing 9% of global GDP and they're producing 4% more of GDP than they would have had they stayed home. So we're expected to achieve a couple of objectives, a comprehensive framework, fill an important gap and reach a global agreement on human mobility and foster deeper collaboration. So I want to make just with that introduction a couple of points. First of all, the importance of cooperation. This is at the very heart of any global compact. We need to build on the conclusions of the first workshop that was held in New York on the 18th and 19th of April at UN headquarters. Those discussants at the time pointed out repeatedly that it is really through cooperation that we will succeed in this framework and that the migration governance has to be consistent and coherent with human rights obligations and standards. They also said we need to do more to understand the driving forces of migration, how to build a comprehensive and coherent approach to migration, how to ensure its effective implementation that will be extremely important and make sure that these commitments are followed up on through a proper implementation and monitoring mechanism for the global compact. Second point is we have to avoid the risk of exclusion. The IDM that I'm opening now today is going to build on these discussions in New York, where we're going to deal with the important subject of migrants and situations of vulnerability. And here I think it's important we make a fundamental distinction, or we won't get it right these two days. Carefully crafted directive from the New York Declaration and the recent reminder at our own standing committee, we are speaking of migrants in vulnerable situations. We are not speaking of vulnerable migrants. Now perhaps that distinction will escape you as it did me on first reading, but it's a very important distinction because we are not speaking of creating a new category of migrants called vulnerable migrants. Anybody on the move is vulnerable, we know that. We're speaking of migrants in vulnerable situations, how we can understand that better in order to support them. So while some migrants may be inherently vulnerable, such as for example the growing, the exponentially growing phenomenon of unaccompanied minors and unaccompanied children, separated children from their parents, they are truly vulnerable. The focus is primarily on, first of all, what are the situations that create vulnerability for migrants? At which stage in their migratory journey do they become vulnerable? And it can happen at any or even at all stages, including after arrival. And how are these vulnerabilities, how can they be reduced or eliminated, and by whom? I hope all of us. So the overall objective is therefore to address all the aspects of vulnerability that migrants experience and the challenges that this involves. So we need in these two days to do several things to try to understand better situations of vulnerability for migrants, to try to identify vulnerability and assess the causes, to review the protection systems available to international migrants, and to foster consensus on our policies in response to vulnerability, and to propose some frameworks to prevent, address, and sustainably resolve migrant vulnerability. Final question, and then in order not to go on too long, to suggest some pathways to solutions, four or five of these, let me go through them very quickly. First one is to avoid assuming or characterizing all migrants as victims, a point I made earlier. We look at the specific needs of certain migrants, such as children, the disabled, or trafficked migrants, or smuggled migrants, but we need to recognize in the global compact how we address all of these situations. We need a holistic approach to this. The second consideration is that of making sure that this global compact places human rights and dignity of migrants at its very center, regardless of the status of the migrants. And we love to categorize people, but it's better not to do that when we talk about vulnerability. So this means looking, for example, vulnerability at border controls, return programs, readmission, post-return monitoring, and establishing accountability mechanisms. Third sub-point, the need to have specific policy and practical options. The fourth one, very important one, is to understand that social inclusion and community integration are absolutely crucial prerequisites for protecting migrants' rights. At a meeting I attended in Brussels yesterday, tried to make the point that almost all of the bad things that happened last year, the attacks in Paris, Nice, Brussels, San Bernardino, California, or land of Florida, were all homegrown. These weren't recently arrived migrants. These were nationals, badly integrated, who felt alienated and unaccepted. We can do better. We have to do better. If we're going to avoid this risk of terrorism or bad attacks, or if we're not going to deny ourselves the contribution that these migrants are going to make. And then the fifth and final sub-point is that we need to make sure that we don't just have policies and frameworks for structural vulnerability, but that we also have a means fully to implement and monitor what we committed ourselves to. Not quite sure how we do that, and I'm not trying to get ahead of anyone, but clearly, if we don't have that, we risk having a compact that will not do what you are here to discuss and want it to do. So let me with this stop and take my seat and introduce the next part of our program. Thank you. Distinguished ladies and gentlemen, migration is increasingly recognized as a major human development issue, which effectively, if effectively managed and harnessed, could contribute to socioeconomic transformation in developed and developing countries. In Ghana, migration has historically played a central role in livelihood strategies of both rural and urban populations. From an era when the West African sub-region was largely regarded as a borderless area, within which goods and people moved freely, the dynamics of migration flows in Ghana changed with the policies of successive colonial and post-independence governments. By the 1980s, a culture of migration had emerged, whereby migration, particularly to Europe, North America, and literally the Gulf Cooperation Council countries, has become a major coping strategy for many Ghanians. Migrants' vulnerabilities, however, have risen significantly in present years, and this happens mostly when migrants fall out of policy domains. It is therefore important that there are necessary structures and legal frameworks in place to make mobility safer by increasing interstate coordination to curb the incidents of smuggling and trafficking in persons. It is equally important that states, international institutions and civil society organizations collaborate and coordinate efforts together to sensitize and reduce the youth and other vulnerable groups prone to migrate at the peril of their lives. While the discussions continue on irregular migration, Ghana is strengthening its border controls between human traffickers and people who smuggle themselves out of their country via irregular means. It has done this by implementing some economic policies under migration governance that will offer opportunities to the youth in areas prone to have irregular migrants to minimize the problem, hence make them less vulnerable. Brain drain, rapid urbanization and rural urban migration, pervasive and growing trends in human trafficking, our illiterate and semi-illiterate youth being exploited and abused particularly in the Gulf Co-operating Council countries coupled with high incidents of migrant deaths in the Mediterranean presented Ghana with a specific set of challenges and concerns and became key factors influence Ghana's mobility patterns. It is against this backdrop that Ghana's national migration policy was lined in 2016 to help manage its internal, interregional and international migration flows for poverty reduction and sustained national development. The policy has a chapter dedicated to migration and vulnerable groups and has proposed the establishment of the Ghana National Commission on Migration as a body specifically mandated to manage migration and migrate related issues in line with the national migration policy. It will comprise of representatives from government, academia, non-governmental organizations, civil society organizations, the media and interest groups to ensure that all dimensions of the protection of migrants and particularly vulnerable migrants rise are covered. The national migration policy formulation process was initiated in late 2011 when the context of the Ghana shared group and development agenda and other national policies. The development of the policy adopted a participatory approach in consultation with a wide range of stakeholders. The opinions, remarks and contributions received during the extensive stakeholder consultations enriched the policy document to guide the country's current migration realities. Distinguished ladies and gentlemen, the interventions of the state retreated the aspirations envisaged in the context being currently worked on towards an African common position on the global compact on migration which supports the human rise of all migrants, addresses the drivers of migration and approves inclusive governance of migration. In addition, this expected African compact concept accepts the contemporary forms of slavery that migrants might encounter taking cognizance of regular and irregular migration pathways and recognizes the contributions of migrants which include women and children. Distinguished ladies and gentlemen, our collective presence reflects the seriousness that member states attack to migrant vulnerabilities and the challenges that accompanies it globally. The need for sensitization of operational and strategic level decision makers on the hard truths about migrant vulnerabilities is crucial in fighting for the rise of the vulnerable migrants. It is expected that throughout the workshop, delegates will share, exchange and recommend viable solutions to most migrant vulnerabilities. The sighting of national challenges and interventions on the subject matter will facilitate practical discourse. It is my hope that you will have constructive and interactive discussions to ensure that the contents on the outcome document will be useful to help make the initiative a successful one. I thank you all for your attention. I'd like to thank Minister Tajani Mohamed for his very eloquent and very pertinent remarks to us. I wouldn't obviously want to try to summarize it because you've heard him just now in his own words, but a couple of points struck me as very important. I very much like the phrase you use about a culture of migration. That's really what we're trying to do here these two days, is to restore a culture of migration which you've incorporated into your national migration policy. I appreciate very much your emphasis on youth because youth are among the most vulnerable, and certainly my recent trip to Libya is quite clear that many of those in the detention centers there who've been picked up on the high seas are youth. And this is the problem we have of the demographic imbalances in which you have a very youthful, unemployed Global South. More and more youth will be seeking irregular pathways to find a new future. And your emphasis on the migrant deaths is something that is very close to the heart of all of us at IOM. We've already recorded 5,000 deaths last year, 3,700 in 2015, and we're approaching the 2,500 mark this year. And we're only starting the second half of that. So although the arrivals are fewer, there's a significant decrease, the deaths are remaining about the same. So it's something to be of great concern to us. And this is why this meeting is so important today. You used another phrase that I think is very good. We sort of warned threadbare a whole of government, a whole of society, and you had a much better phrase, inclusive governance, which I thought was an excellent phrase to use. So I thank you very much for that, your whole National Migration Commission idea, which includes, I was surprised to hear, not only includes civil society, the academic world, but includes the media also. In many ways, the media are our friend in this period of toxicity in the atmosphere here. So I want to thank you very much, Minister, for making the time to come here and conveying to us a very important message. So thank you very much. Director-General Swing, Honourable Ministers and high-level dignitaries, Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, it's a great pleasure to address you, and I regret not being able to come in person to Geneva for this dialogue. This two-day event is a continuation of the first session of the International Dialogue on Migration, which I was glad to attend in New York in April. The International Dialogues provide an excellent opportunity for in-depth discussions on the various relevant themes of international migration. They provide a very valuable input to the preparatory process towards a global compact for safe, orderly, and regular migration. Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, in September last year, the United Nations member states consensually adopted the New York Declaration for Refugees and Migrants. In this declaration, states committed themselves to developing a global compact for safe, orderly, and regular migration to be presented for adoption in an intergovernmental conference on international migration in 2018. The global compact for migration will be the first intergovernmentally negotiated agreement prepared under the auspices of the United Nations to cover all dimensions of international migration in a comprehensive manner. The first phase in the preparatory process for a global compact is well underway, with three of the six thematic consultations already held in Geneva and New York. Next Wednesday I'll preside over the first interactive multi-stakeholder hearing which is taking place in New York. In addition, several regional and national consultations are planned for the upcoming months. This is indeed a busy and pivotal time for all actors interested in international migration. This is the time when we must work together to advance international cooperation and governance on migration in all its dimensions, from protecting the human rights of migrants to better understanding the drivers of migration and recognizing the contribution of migrants. Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, I wish to draw your attention to another important process currently underway under the auspices of the General Assembly. The member states of the United Nations are negotiating a concise political declaration on the implementation of the Global Plan of Action to combating trafficking in persons. This political declaration will be presented for adoption at the high-level meeting of the General Assembly in September this year. At a time when an increasing number of desperate people are moving across the globe, seeking to escape conflict and insecurity and extreme poverty, a disturbing nexus has emerged between people smugglers and human traffickers, leading to many vulnerable people falling into the wrong hands. Despite collective efforts, human trafficking is still as alarmingly prevalent today as it was when the Palermo Protocol was adopted in 2000. And in the last ten years, the increase of the share of trafficked children has more than doubled from 13% in 2004 to 28% in 2014. As we know, women and girls are particularly vulnerable as they are still disproportionately affected by poverty, discriminated against in education and health care, are often the most affected by violence and conflict and are disproportionately represented in the informal economy. So, Excellencies Ladies and Gentlemen, the high priority of my presidency during the 71st session of the United Nations General Assembly has been to drive the implementation of the 2030 Agenda on sustainable development. The 2030 Agenda calls for a fundamental transformation of humanity's patterns of consumption, production, and the sustainability of our relationship with planetary resources. The Agenda calls for an end to the deleterious effects of hunger, poverty and poor health, all of which touch upon international migration. With the adoption of the 2030 Agenda, human mobility is no longer seen as just background context for development or a consequence of lack of development. Rather, the Agenda recognizes migration's potential to enhance sustainable development. Thus, the global compact for safe, orderly and regular migration can further strengthen and elaborate these important links between migration and sustainable development. Excellencies Ladies and Gentlemen, I welcome this international dialogue's focus on migrant vulnerabilities. The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development recognizes the vulnerability of migrants to exploitation and abuse, specifically through the targets related to countering human trafficking, forced labor and child labor. We still have more to do in defining a vulnerable migrant or a migrant in a vulnerable situation. This international dialogue's discussions on understanding and identifying migrant vulnerabilities are therefore highly pertinent. They will further assist the international community to fulfill its promise to leave no one behind. No doubt your discussions will also be most helpful in increasing our understanding on migrant vulnerabilities. We need to identify efficient ways of building resilience as we move forward in our work to develop a global compact for safe, orderly and regular migration. I wish you all fruitful discussions and I thank you for your attention. Thank you.