Costa Rica - The 42nd session of the Central American Commission of Heads of Migration Directorates (OCAM) will close today, following a discussion of the challenges posed by increasing human mobility in the region.

The most important issue on the meeting agenda was the flows of Cuban, African and Asian migrants transiting through Central America, mainly on their way to the United States. Other topics discussed were the coordination of migration policies among countries in the region and the exchange of information.

"The results of this meeting will improve the quality of life of migrants," said Javier Carrillo,  pro tempore President of OCAM and Director General of the National Immigration Service of Panama. He pledged to continue working together with his counterparts to benefit the nations of Central America, in strict compliance with international human rights standards.

Marcelo Pisani, IOM Regional Director  for Central and North America, and the Caribbean, called on immigration services in the region to continue working in a coordinated manner, as they did when, earlier this year, thousands of Cuban migrants were stranded in Costa Rica and Panama. "Such coordination is essential for the region to address complex migration issues, and the OCAM is the appropriate space to coordinate such joint responses," he said.

OCAM includes representatives of national immigration services from Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama, and Mexico as observer country. The  commission was created in 1990 within the Central American Integration System (SICA) as a regional mechanism for coordinating migration-related policies, human rights and migration and development issues. IOM has supported OCAM as its technical secretariat since 1999.

OCAM aims to facilitate the mobility of people between the countries of the region as a vital element in the Central American integration process and to provide practical solutions to common problems in the field of migration.

For further information, please contact Jorge Gallo at IOM’s Regional Office for Central and North America and the Caribbean in Costa Rica, Tel: +506 7203 6536, Email:  jgallo@iom.int.