 Mr. Chair, Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen, it is by now to prosaic to begin my speech by noting the extraordinaryness of 2020. Few years in our recent past have contained such dramatic global change. And yet, with news of a vaccine emerging in the last weeks, we may yet end the year with hope. Hope for a return to normality, and even the banality of travel or meeting together in the same room. Hope for future recovery, both economic and social. And hope that we will be wiser, post-pandemic, and more deeply aware of the benefits of global cooperation. I am Portuguese, so my hope is still fledgling. And it is my duty to warn you all that not only are we still just partway through this journey, but that some of the deepest impacts, particularly for migrants and displaced populations, may still be yet to come. How deep those impacts go, and the long-term consequences for human mobility depend in great part on our responses over the coming months. Today I would like to focus on a few key areas of IOM's work this year and conclude with some thoughts about the future. But first I would like to take a moment to offer heartfelt thanks to all of my colleagues at IOM, who have worked tirelessly with patience, kindness and ingenuity to support migrants and displaced populations around the world. We have spent a great deal of time this year making sure the organization remains effective, operational and fit for purpose. But the work I will describe to you today is first and foremost a reflection of the tenacity of IOM staff, a refusal to give up, but rather find solutions to unanticipated problems and persevere in delivering services at a moment when the world has upended. They have remained on the front line throughout this crisis, continuing to reach migrants and displaced populations in extremely difficult circumstances. I am proud to lead this organization and never more so than now. Let me just pay tribute to the memory of our three colleagues that unfortunately died due to COVID-19 this year. Excellencies. IOM has long responded to emergencies and humanitarian crises across the world to which the current pandemic has headed a new layer of complexity. Together with our partners, we have had to adapt the means through which we deliver essential aid in the field, reducing contact with and between groups of concern, while enhancing communication and advocacy campaigns in order to combat bias, prejudice and discrimination. We have invested with your support considerable resources in additional measures related to water, sanitation and EGN, shelter, access to primary health care, and most importantly, camp management in all areas affected by a high density of population, particularly in camps and camp-like settings. As a result, we have avoided, by and large, major outbreaks of COVID-19 in those vulnerable settings. Unfortunately, the world's ills are not limited to the global pandemic and violence, conflict, disasters and human rights violations have continued throughout this past year, displacing ever greater numbers. The situation in the Central Sahel offers a particularly grim outlook with millions internally displaced as a result of armed conflict and terrorism. This is having a negative impact across West Africa, pushing greater numbers to seek economic solutions and protection further afield, including across the Mediterranean. In 2020, the bulk of our work has continued to focus on long-standing conflict or crisis situations for which the international community is continuing to identify lasting and sustainable solutions. An ongoing crisis in Syria. Deep food insecurity in Yemen amid continued conflict. Fluctuating movements of Venezuelan nationals in southern America. A convergence of conflict and migrant coercion in Libya. Continued instability in Nigeria and displaced Rohingya in Bangladesh. By listing these so bluntly, I do not mean to oversimplify. The circumstances that have led so many to become displaced are uniquely complex, resulting from a variety of factors, often made worse by the effects of climate and environmental change. We continue to apply humanitarian fixes to situations that require deeper political solutions. Without such support, the consequence for these individuals would likely be catastrophic. But in a context in which resources may become more constrained, the time has come to apply the political will and collective investment that many governments have displayed in their response to the global pandemic, to these protracted crises. IOM has continued to display the key characteristics to which I know you attach great importance. Flexibility. Responsiveness. Agility. While seeking to further strengthen our accountability to affected populations and prevent sexual exploitation and abuse. For migrants and asylum seekers, adding to European shores, whether in North Africa or the Western Balkans, we need to improve our approach to rescue at sea and disembarkation. As the President of the European Commission has stated, saving lives at sea is not optional. As strategic incidents once again multiply, we must take decisive action. In the Horn of Africa and the Gulf, thousands continue to suffer at the ends of human traffickers and smugglers, who take advantage of chaos and instability in Yemen. We are working closely with both countries of origin and destination, notably Ethiopia and Saudi Arabia, to bring greater coherence to the way in which populations' flows are managed in the region. In many of these situations, vulnerable migrants often find themselves mixed with internally displaced people and refugees, making our partnership with the Office of the ICommission for Refugees critical. Together, we have aimed and will continue to work to bring greater clarity and transparency to our joint operations. This year, record numbers have been internally displaced as a result of conflict and disaster, and internal displacement makes up the majority. I underline this point. Internal displacement makes up the majority of IOM's crisis-related programming. Over 400 IOM-filled offices worldwide are directly implementing programs, and we have the capacity to search our humanitarian capacity from the earliest stages of a crisis. Our on-the-ground presence, you know, is unique, and we are present throughout the cycle of a crisis, linking humanitarian response to peace-building, recovery, community stabilization, and development. This for IOM is the humanitarian development and peace-nexus inaction. The I-Level Panel on Internal Displacement has given us an opportunity to reflect on our capacities, from Somalia to Iraq. We believe there is a critical need to invest more deeply in disaster risk reduction, preparedness and prevention, while community-based approaches with strong local ownership and local design are essential to ensure that our interventions do not create parallel structures and services. IOMs will continue to contribute to the panel's work, not least through our leadership on internal displacement data. We look forward to the deliberations and outcomes of the I-Level Panel and engaging with you to ensure robust, comprehensive, and sustainable proposals to support IDPs across the world. We have experienced an unprecedented period of immobility in 2020, one which has caused all of us to review our dependence on as well as the fragilities of a globalized world. We have seen an extraordinary dip in the issuance of visas and work permits as borders closed and the wheels of immigration bureaucracy ground to a halt. The response to the virus has affected all countries, territories, and areas. COVID-19 has both exacerbated existing vulnerabilities of migrants yet opened up new spaces for innovative solutions to migration challenges. We hope that governments continue to show willingness to work to establish a new equilibrium on migration. Even while economies recover, recognizing the deeply integrated role migrants play in all our societies and in sustainable development. IOM's strategic vision prioritized IOM's work with governments and other stakeholders to adapt the tools to manage mobility in step with changing migration dynamics. The pandemic has created a significant demand for this adaptation. The global suspension of travel, combined with a sudden spike in unemployment, has left many migrants stranded with little support. We estimate there are over 2.75 million migrants of concern, including those who wish to return to their countries of origin, but are unable to do so due to lack of resources and border closures. Loss of income and sometimes unexpected irregularity of status have increased, of course, vulnerability. We have seen refugee resettlement drop in 2020, with an attendant backlog of cases, as governments start reopening their borders. For those able to return to countries of origin, reintegration support is critical. Many will go back to old, but it is also important that they themselves use to support with remittances before the crisis and risk becoming an extra month to feed at a time of pressure and which may push some to re-immigrate irregularity. For those who remain stranded, access to basic services and meeting basic needs is a daily struggle that requires urgent attention. IOM has been facilitating return by providing comprehensive support, negotiating humanitarian corridors, and offering travel assistance to thousands of migrants. In doing so, we have announced available technology to access and keep in touch with stranded migrants, including virtual counseling, online self-registration, and electronic cash-based interventions. While these have been critical during the pandemic, I must say these innovations will serve migrants long into the future. For migrants at risk of exclusion, IOM has adapted its interventions to ensure continued outreach, whether through information campaigns or distance learning at a time when, of course, physical interaction is more limited. With each speech, this information and racism and xenophobia rife, online engagement to counter such narratives is ever more important. The dramatic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic have also revealed the need for evidence-based policies and practices to manage travel globally considered in a health-secure manner. IOMs in-depth work around data, health and border management, and specifically at points of entry, has brought home the importance of a multi-sectoral approach and multi-faceted expertise. IOM staff have undertaken health screenings and checks for migrants in order to facilitate cross-border work, while offering to governments advice on how to integrate health concerns within complex immigration and border management systems, including, of course, the use of digital technologies. There is a clear need to invest in data and information. Estates calibrate and recalibrate their entry procedures in the face of a fluctuating infection rates worldwide. IOM has developed a global point of entry database covering over 3,500 points of entry to map. You can see them on the screen. To map, track, and analyze the impact the pandemic is having at land, sea, and air borders, and the other key locations of internal mobility. COVID-19 will fundamentally reshape the immigration. That's quite clear. But also the health and border management landscape. And the three things need to come together, ensuring that there is an international forum to store, to analyze, to exchange information and best practices and establish common understanding in our view will be key. In this regard, IOM has begun working with a number of regional entities to support information exchange and develop stronger guidelines and standards for cross-border travel, to facilitate regional integration and mobility, for example, as part of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement. Looking forward, we will need to pivot the long-term social economic impacts and maintain focus on the sustainable development goals to avoid regression. This will be tough indeed in a context where development needs are increasing and public finances are under pressure. However, colleagues are working hard at all levels of the organization to ensure that migration is fully integrated into the UN recovery planning. Mr. Chair, ladies and gentlemen, transboundary challenges can only be met by multilateral efforts. The global compact for safe orderly and regular migration was born from the recognition that one state cannot address migration's challenges, nor benefit from its opportunities alone. Earlier this year, the Secretary General called on the world to reimagine human mobility, to uphold human dignity and respect human rights even while implementing travel restrictions and, of course, border controls. This call highlights the need for more cooperation and more collaboration within and amongst states. On December 1st, the United Nations Secretary General will release his first biennial report on the implementation of the global compact. It will show that despite the challenges of the past year, the compact is alive and well. We have valuable indications that governments and other stakeholders are using the document as a framework for developing national migration policy and national migration governance. The regional reviews that are currently underway are, I believe, a vital opportunity for states to discuss and evaluate how to strengthen these cooperation while further bolstering their own efforts. I thank all those states who have actively contributed thus far. COVID-19 has highlighted the potential for the compact to navigate new and often unanticipated challenges. We have seen our states have explored alternatives to detention, expanded access to health services, and suspended returns to reduce risks to migrants' health and well-being. Equally, however, there are cases where state practice has exacerbated existing inequalities and seriously eroded migrants' rights and dignity too often at the cost of their lives. A key challenge for the governments who have adopted the compact will be to maintain and embed these positive practices while not backsliding on the protection and inclusion of migrants. Here, the UN system and specifically the UN network of migration has played a vital role. This year, regional and national migration coordination structures have been either created or strengthened, embedding the network across the UN system. In addition, 14 countries have officially confirmed their willingness to become champions of the GCM and further promote the visibility and relevance of the global compact. I welcome their commitment. The Migration Multipartner Trust Fund is now fully established, but the I demand for trust fund-supported programming far outweighs current fund resources currently at approximately $17 million US dollars. Further resource mobilization has been significantly impacted by the pandemic, and I repeat therefore my appeal for as many of you as possible to contribute. Beyond the network, I am as engaged in partnership along a number of fronts. This year, we have signed MOUs with United Nations Development Program and the International Labor Organization to strengthen our common interests and work. And today, even today, I am extremely pleased to sign an MOU with the GAVI Alliance to promote equitable access for migrants to a COVID-19 vaccine. Even before the pandemic, migrants too often fell outside social safety nets and lacked basic access to health services. As the world faces the COVID-19 pandemic, the principles of universal health coverage have never been more relevant. There is no us versus them. I cannot emphasize enough the importance of equitable primary health care systems to reduce stigma and remove health care barriers, particularly in fragile settings. And IOM has been supporting countries to develop capacity and infrastructure. But with news of a potential vaccine, we need urgent and dedicated efforts to ensure equitable access to a COVID-19 vaccine for people on the move, and especially in countries and communities with fragile health systems. Many millions of migrants and displaced persons today are included in immunization campaigns worldwide. However, far too many remain outside these campaigns. All countries should ensure that an adequate percentage of the stock of vaccines is reserved for non-nationals regardless of their immigration status. Unfortunately, displaced people. IOM stands ready to work with governments at all levels to ensure that any immunization ruled out for COVID-19 includes migrants and other people on the move as particularly vulnerable categories. Mr. Chair, ambassadors, ladies and gentlemen, I would like to update you also on our progress to strengthen IOM. Following the presentation of the strategic vision and the last council meeting, we have developed nine regional strategies, tailoring the vision to specific regional contexts and facilitating collaboration between our field offices. This will be launched in the coming weeks. The regional strategies are complemented by a continental strategy for Africa, which sets out priorities for partnership with the African Union, regional economic communities and governments. I deeply value our strong relationship within the African continent, and we jointly seek to realize the potential of migration for development. We have finalized and presented to you the migration data strategy and are turning to implementation including strengthening IOM data capacity at regional level. IOM will also seek to develop its leadership on IDP data, enhancing collaboration with other agencies and experts, safeguarding standards on ethics and governance and raising visibility. IOM is finalizing its institutional strategy on migration, climate change and environmental change. Building on our well-established institutional objectives, the strategy will articulate how IOM can support states and migrants to deal with the challenges posed by climate and means to operationalize this. With the brutal hurricane season in the Americas, now overlapping with an intense season of tropical storms and cyclones in Africa, in the Philippines and floods affecting multiple countries across the Horn of Africa, it is clear IOM's efforts to build resilience in the most deeply affected populations are becoming, if ever, ever more urgent. Despite our immediate concerns, we must not lose sight of the long-term challenges facing the world. IOM's legal identity strategy will be finalized during the first half of 2021. IOM plays, indeed, an important role, helping states to provide trusted legal identity for mobile populations, including migrants. This includes assistance and advice on the responsible use of new technology, including biometrics solutions in full respect of applicable human rights standards and good practice. IOM's efforts to strengthen knowledge management and results-based reporting will be strengthened by the development and rollout of a strategic result framework in 2021, which sets out objectives through which IOM's work will be measured and evaluated. Our efforts to pursue stronger policy coherence across the organization continue. Over the past year, the Policy Hub has worked with colleagues across at quarters and the field to develop new guiding principles on return and reintegration, placing stronger emphasis on the protection of returnees and investment in sustainable reintegration. We have also developed a new framework for civil society engagement and put into action the key principles of 2019-2023 strategy on migration and sustainable development. Over the past six months, IOM has worked to ensure strong and more coherent messaging on core concerns regarding the situation of migrants in the pandemic. In 2021, we aim to further strengthen our capacity on strategic communication, linking it more closely to IOM's policy and IOM's operations. You have all by now had an opportunity to review the application of the Internal Governance Framework Work Plan and I would like to thank you for your commitment to this extensive route and branch reform of IOM's internal processes. We have made significant progress in a number of areas, including in internal justice, financial management and human resources. The first phase of the business transformation process has commenced with colleagues from across the organization in headquarters to the field, now involved in updating and redesigning the way we currently work. The planned enterprise resource planning system, the Informatic Platform, will help drive efficiencies, accountability and transparency across the organization, supported by a robust change management strategy. We will need predictable year-on-year funding for the business transformation to ensure that IOM can continue to be a reliable partner to member states, donors and beneficiaries in the coming years. We continue to look for ways to strengthen the IOM budget, which will be particularly challenging in a context where needs are greater and, yes I know, purses are strained. I thank all of you for your work in this regard and we look forward to continuing discussions on the options already presented that will ensure IOM has a more sustainable long-term funding model. Similarly, I would like to thank you all for your commitment to IOM's development, both in terms of financial support and the flexible and near-mark contributions that many of you continue to make, as well as your landmark consensus on constitutional change. In the coming month, we will follow the negotiated process to appoint two deputy director-general. This will necessitate reorganization of airport functions to ensure we realize the potential of these milestone development. We will take the opportunity to strengthen key executive functions and cross-organizational cooperation. I will finish by bringing your attention to some of the longer-term effects of the pandemic. Migration as part of a broader upheaval of global human mobility remains deeply uncertain in terms of future scope and dynamics. A broad range of factors, direct and indirect, will affect the characteristics and scale of migration even after scientists develop the vaccines that may reintroduce stability back into our lives and allow us to focus on recovery. It is clear that we may soon reach a series of tipping points that will affect the nature of migration, and particularly in the current state of immobility increases costs, reintroducing further inequality into the world of travel. Some may be excluded, while others may be pushed into irregular forms of movement. Changing demands in the labor market will impact demand for migrant labor in the short to medium term. Some forms of migrant labor, notably seasonal agricultural work, will likely prove resilient. But managing fluctuations in demand and ensuring those who do migrate are not left in precarious situations, vulnerable to exploitation, should remain for all of us a key concern. The world of work is changing around us. Access to high-skilled employment may not in future be so clearly wedded to migration. And if the urban centres that have characterized office work for the last several centuries fall into decline, this will have an impact on the service economies in which migrants are over-represented. The impacts on migrants are both direct and looming. Migrants are already experiencing greater exclusion from the labor market. But the experience tells us that there are likely to be long-term scaring effects on migrant groups, and particularly young people. We have particular concern for migrant women, those employed in the domestic sector, as well as those working in the informal economy. There is a growing risk of food insecurity for displaced populations, and the broader impacts for those who may fall into poverty. This is closely linked to trade and investment, particularly for those who depend on cross-border trade for their livelihoods. These impacts will play out in different ways, not all of them linear. How will a failure to facilitate safe and secure movement across borders affect the propensity to undertake dangerous clandestine journeys? How will the polls in focus on climate change and environmental degradation affect those whose lives and livelihoods are inching away with each passing year? We must double down on solutions that can mitigate short-term effects now in order to reduce deeper impacts in the future, recognizing that regional mobility can help facilitate national recovery. We must keep our eyes on the horizon, ensuring that discourse on human mobility maintain focus on the long-term drivers of migration, including demographic divides, persistent income inequalities, emerging transnational networks, and labor market mismatches. These incumbent upon us all to ensure that migrants do not fall behind. This year, we have heard stories of migrant networks rallying around those who have found themselves without employment or status. While remittances have dropped across the world, we have seen communities surge remittances to support families at home. And we should not forget the thousands of migrants who have supported our communities in countries of destinations throughout the pandemic, whether working or volunteering. Our goal is to make it easier, not harder, for migrants, displaced populations and their communities to thrive, whether through reducing the cost of remittances or investing in skills and education. Ladies and gentlemen, while an individual should not be judged solely based on their economic or societal contribution, the two German scientists, credited with developing the most promising vaccine against COVID-19, are children of Turkish immigrants. And that fact reminds us that migration truly can benefit us all. The migrants are integral to our societies, and for that, yes, we should be grateful. Thank you.