IOM Director General Brunson McKinley is today finishing an
official two-day visit to Argentina.

During his meetings with government officials, McKinley praised
Argentina’s migration policies, especially the regularization
programme for undocumented migrants called Patria Grande for those
migrants living and working in Argentina who are citizens of
Mercosur countries.

"Patria Grande is a model that many other countries should
follow and not only in Latin America, but in other regions of the
world," expressed McKinley.

The Director General arrived in Buenos Aires last weekend after
attending the XVI Ibero-American Summit held in Montevideo,
Uruguay.  The yearly summit brings together leaders from all
Spanish and Portuguese speaking countries to discuss regional and
international issues of common concern and to strengthen
cooperation.

At the end of the Summit, the leaders signed the "Montevideo
Commitment on Migration and Development", endorsing concerted
actions to reduce migration flows, fight labour-market exploitation
and defend the rights of migrants, both regular and irregular. They
also reaffirmed a pledge to intensify dialogue and cooperation and
to promote this commitment in national policies, sub regional
forums, the South American Conference on Migration and
international agreements.

According to IOM’s World Migration Report 2005, it is
estimated that some 20 million Latin American and Caribbean
nationals live outside their country of birth, most of them in
North America.  The United States and Canada, largely because
of their geographic proximity and economic strength, remain
powerful magnets for migrants from the region,

In Buenos Aires, McKinley also visited the Espacio para la
Memoria y para la Promoción y Defensa de los Derechos
Humanos, formerly the Navy Mechanics School, now a museum of memory
on political prisoners who disappeared during military rule.

For more information contact:

Elena Solari

IOM Buenos Aires

Tel +541 1 4815 51 94

E-mail "mailto:esolari@iom.int">esolari@iom.int