Your Excellency, Minister of Justice and Home Affairs,

Director General of the Mongolian Immigration Agency,

Excellencies, Distinguished Delegates, Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is a great honour for me to be with you today at the 10th
ASEM Conference of the Directors-General of Immigration and
Management of Migration Flows.

Let me begin by expressing my profound gratitude to the
Mongolian Ministry of Justice and Home Affairs and the Mongolian
Immigration Agency for their gracious invitation to take part in
this distinguished forum.

I am also grateful for this opportunity to visit Mongolia on the
auspicious occasion of the 10th anniversary of our host, the
Mongolian Immigration Agency, and the 10th meeting of this
migration forum. 2011 is a special year too for IOM as we celebrate
60 years since our establishment in 1951.

I wanted to share with you this morning a few thoughts on the
proposition that migration is inevitable given global trends; and
necessary in view of the job shortages in industrialized countries;
and highly desired, if managed well.

In my brief remarks today, I would like to address three
areas:

1. The State of Migration;
2. Migration Dialogue; and
3. Migration Partnerships: the example of Counter Trafficking

I. The State of Migration

We live in an era of the greatest human mobility in recorded
history – one billion people on the move including 215
million international migrants and 740 million internal
migrants.

There are many global trends behind today's mobile world,
including demographic, growing economic disparities between regions
and countries, and communication and transportation networks
linking all parts of the world. There is also the impact of the
digital revolution. Consider for example: 2 billion persons now
have access to the internet -- in contrast to only 390 million
people 12 years ago; 247 billion emails are transmitted every day;
Facebook now has more than 750 million subscribers, 70% of which
are outside the United States; and Twitter has some 200 million
users; and both are growing exponentially. In brief, anyone with
access to the internet can know anything that is happening in the
world.

Moreover, most developed industrialized countries are facing
rapidly ageing populations. Most of these countries have a negative
replacement rate, that is, more deaths than births. For example, in
the EU, the working age population (15-64) will decline to 294
million by 2050. This is a decrease of 12 percent. We can see the
significance of migration in response to this demographic challenge
in the age structure of EU and non-EU nationals residing in the EU
countries.

All of this means that large –scale migration is, and will
remain, a “mega-trend” of the 21st century. This is
good news because migrants contribute significantly to development
in countries of destination: migrants fill labour shortages,
innovate in business, consume local goods and services, and pay
tax, social insurance, and pensions. (The social security fund in
one developed country would have gone broke this year, e.g. had it
not been for the contributions to the fund by migrants.)

Migrants also contribute to development in countries of origin:
They do so through remittances and transfers of knowledge and
technology. Migrant remittances total more than US $350 million a
year; remittances are two times greater than all official foreign
aid; and on a par with Foreign Direct Investment. In 2010 alone,
four of the top ten remittance receiving countries were found in
Asia. In some cases, migrant remittances amount to more than 10% of
the total GDP of countries of origin.

The sad and sometimes cruel irony is that – at a time when
there are more migrants than ever before – visa regimes are
being tightened; borders closed; and public attitudes are turning
negative on migrants. We must all make greater efforts, therefore,
to promote dialogue, especially between countries of origin and
destination at meetings such as this ASEM today and through public
education programmes.

II. Migration Dialogue

IOM places great value on the promotion of migration dialogue.
We do so in a variety of ways. We support regional and global
forums including fifteen Regional Consultative Processes (RCPs)
such as the Bali Process on Human Trafficking, and the Colombo
Process on Labour Migration. IOM also supports the Global Forum on
Migration and Development, and IOM has its own International
Dialogue on Migration.

IOM also actively supports the EU’s Global Approach to
Migration. The exemplary partnership European and Asian countries
have forged in the field of labour mobility and other areas are
encouraging.

In support of enhanced inter-regional cooperation, IOM had the
honour of hosting in February, the 2nd Asia-EU Dialogues on Labour
Migration. This was part of "the Regional Programme and Dialogue on
Facilitating Safe and Legal Migration between South Asia and the
European Union."

III. Migration partnerships: The example of Counter
Trafficking

Promotion of the benefits of regular migration goes hand in hand
with equal efforts to prevent human trafficking. IOM is working
closely with a growing number of countries on the establishment of
Migrant Resource Centers. These centres promote safe and regular
migration by providing vital information on the rights and
responsibilities of migrants in host countries, the living and
working conditions, and the risks of irregular migration and human
trafficking.

We should work further on the regulation of private recruitment
agencies. A number of countries have taken important initiatives
such as the promotion of transparent recruitment procedures by
e-migration.

Human trafficking is one of the most serious forms of
exploitation of migrants. At US $32 billion a year in illicit
earning, human trafficking ranks third after the illicit drugs and
guns trades. IOM provides a full range of assistance for victim
identification, referral, immediate needs through shelter and
medical services, voluntary return and reintegration assistance,
drafting legislation, database, awareness raising, training for
welfare staff, law enforcement agencies, etc.

Many countries in the region, in cooperation with EU and other
partners, have invested significant resources into developing new
laws, policies and programmes. These efforts must be sustained if
we are to have any hope of stopping, or at least significantly
reducing human trafficking.

IOM is increasingly asked to assist the capacity building of
migration management in many countries to support their own
national efforts. In Mongolia, for example, we see it essential to
develop regional and global mechanisms for migration management
including establishing more legal channels for migration; channels
that take into account the demographic and economic realities of
sending and receiving countries.

I am therefore, very glad that, over the next two days, you will
also cover this important issue, to see what lessons have been
learned, and what good practices are available for us to learn
from.

Conclusion

While there is no magic formula nor one that is universally
applicable, a responsible migration policy is one that I call a
"high road scenario" – on one hand, a policy that respects
national sovereignty in determining who enters a county and that
those who do enter will uphold and respect local custom and laws;
and, (2) on the other hand, a policy that respects the age-old
desire of people to migrate to seek a better life – mankind's
oldest poverty reduction and development strategy - and the
person's expectation that his / her rights as a person will be
honoured and respected when they do migrate.

Given the points just covered, it is obvious that large-scale
migration is inevitable and necessary – but also, if these
mass population movements are responsibly and humanely managed,
they are also desirable.

IOM is ready to support your efforts in any way that we can.