Switzerland - Calling for the well-managed migration of health workers, the UN Migration Agency (IOM)’s Director General, William Lacy Swing, says skilled foreign nurses are in demand worldwide and can play a key role in strengthening health systems and economies.

“It is impossible to overstate the importance of nurses to the migration cycle,” said Ambassador Swing, in a keynote address to hundreds of nursing executives at a policy forum of the International Council of Nurses in Barcelona on 25 May.

“Nurses are both skilled migrants in demand all over the world and first line health workforce responders to migrant health needs. They have a key role to play in ensuring that people-centred and culturally appropriate health services are available for refugees, migrants, internally displaced persons and host communities.”

Ambassador Swing relayed IOM’s vision for a world in which migrants move as a matter of choice rather than necessity, in which their rights are protected and where migration is well-governed, so that it is a positive force for economies and societies.

He lamented that today’s migratory world is vastly different from this ideal, as spiralling conflict, disaster and humanitarian crises force millions from their homes, compelling many to turn to abusive and exploitative traffickers, amid unprecedented and dangerous xenophobia and anti-migrant policies.

He said the solution is safe, orderly and regular migration and identified many critical components, including the following:

• Opening more regular channels of migration, noting regular routes are needed for labour migration, including skilled health workers
• Giving top priority to saving lives and reducing avoidable deaths along migration paths
• Combatting trafficking and addressing the protection needs of vulnerable migrants
• Developing effective programmes that foster integration of migrants and social cohesion
• Integrating migrant health into international migration policy and ensuring migrants have access to quality health services along migration routes and to migration-sensitive health systems
• Enhancing capacity to respond to migrant health during humanitarian emergencies
• Advancing management of health worker migration
• Adopting ethical recruitment and employment policies to reduce forced labour and improve conditions for migrant workers

For further information, please contact Leonard Doyle at IOM HQ, Tel: +41792857123, Email: ldoyle@iom.int