Mr. Deputy Director General,

Excellencies,

Honored Guests,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is a great honour and pleasure to be with you here in Bangkok
for the 2nd Border Management Conference — a conference that
brings together the key actors in this dynamic field —
Governments, international organizations, industry leaders, public
and private sectors.  All have a stake in sharing information,
enhancing capacities, and strengthening the border management
network.

The success of our 1st Border Management Conference two years
ago also here in Bangkok, is testimony to the value of this
forum.  In a time of fiscal austerity, it is vital to ensure
that everything we do together provides value and impact. 
This is how we maintain the credibility of our constituencies and
stay on top of our game.

I wish to thank our co-organizers and friends in the Department
of Consular Affairs in the Foreign Affairs Ministry,
Thailand.  We also thank all of you, our partners, for
contributing your time, resources, and ideas to this important
forum.  

Scene setter

To begin, let me first of all, try to set the scene, to describe
the global migration context, in which our deliberations –
and indeed your day-to-day work will take place. 

The issues we will discuss over the next two days —
immigration and visa support solutions; the collection, protection,
and management of data — are issues that are critical to
managing migration in a century that is already bearing witness to
the greatest human mobility in recorded
history.   

Today, there are nearly 1 billion migrants in the world —
one in every 6 or 7 people — 214 million are international
migrants, and 740 million are internal migrants. 

During the next three decades, we expect the number of
international migrants virtually to double to 405 million by 2050.
 Large scale migration is therefore a reality that neither the
current global economic downturn, nor increasingly restrictive
security measures can halt, or even slow down. 

The “drivers” of migration: demographic trends;
labour market demands; and widening North-South disparities
constitute push-pull factors that make mass migration
inevitable. 

To complicate matters,  global phenomena such as climate
change; drastically declining  birth-rates in the
industrialized world, and food, water and energy insecurity; and
natural disasters – all are coming together; coalescing like
never before to push and pull the world’s population in new
directions. 

Instant information, the digital revolution, and cheap flights
add to the acceleration of human movement within and across
borders. To illustrate this point, there were 800 million
airline passenger movements in 2009. That number is expected to
reach 3.3 billion by 2014, representing phenomenal growth in human
mobility.

The issue that stands before us then is how to manage the
migration process in a legal, regulated, responsible an humane
manner that accomplishes three objectives: (a) respects national
sovereignty; (b) advances economic and social development; and (c)
upholds migrants’ legitimate aspirations, dignity and human
rights. 

For its part, IOM works with its partners, many represented
here, to support countries to strike the tenuous balance between
facilitating human mobility – often referred to as the third
wave of globalization after the free movement of goods and capital;
and helping countries exercise their sovereign right to know who is
on their territory. 

In 75 countries around the world, IOM implements 150 border
management projects – projects that:  

Build national capacities through training and mentoring border
guards, customs officials, and immigration officers –
including 2,000 immigration and border officers trained at our
African Capacity Building Centre in Moshi, Tanzania since May
2009;

Introduce innovative visa service solutions, including in West
Africa and Asia, to assist immigration decision-making, on which my
colleague Patrick Corcoran will make a presentation on later
today. 

With this introduction, I have three main points that I would
like to address in the remainder of my remarks.

I. PURSUING A COMPREHENSIVE, INTEGRATED APPROACH TO
BORDER MANAGEMENT 

First, it is important to position border management in a
comprehensive migration management framework – a framework
that looks further along the migration continuum at the phenomena
that generates pressure on migration management systems.

• The mismatch in global labour demand and
  supply

This starts with recognition of the fundamental mismatch between
global labour supply and labour demand that is driving
migration.  I am talking here about the discrepancy between
the demographics and labor requirements of ageing, declining
industrialized States and the exponentially expanding, unemployed
youth populations in the rest of the world.

The population of the world’s industrialized countries
– in which more people are dying than being born – is
expected to decline 25 per cent further by 2050.  Europe alone
will find itself in need of 50 million workers by 2040 —
workers it will not have without large-scale migration.

On the supply side, most of the world’s expected
population growth will be concentrated in today’s poorest and
youngest countries: this equates with growing numbers of young
people entering the labor force seeking out the largely
non-existent employment opportunities at home.

This mismatch is having at least two negative results:

• it leads to irregular migration; and
• it increases the propensity to make use of asylum procedures
  – not always because of a genuine need for protection, but to
  gain entry to countries and access to their labour markets.

In the absence of legally sanctioned means of access to labour
markets, tightened visa regimes and closed borders, irregular
migration channels are perceived as the primary -- or only --
mechanism enabling the entry and stay of foreigners.  This
will also push more people into the hands of traffickers.
   

We all must do more to better understand this fundamental
dynamic and to assist countries to align genuine labour market
needs with visa and entry polices.

• Multiple complex humanitarian
  disasters

A second phenomenon is the increasing migration emergencies
resulting from human-induced humanitarian disasters along with
slow- and rapid-onset natural disasters. 

There is every indication that climate change and environmental
degradation – whether slow-onset events such as
de-forestation, soil and river erosion, or extreme environmental
events such as tsunamis, earthquakes and other cataclysmic
incidents – are growing in frequency and intensity and are
expected to displace millions of people over the next forty
years.  Add to this trend, the increasingly frequent and
severe multiple global crises – relating to food, water,
economic/financial issues, security, terrorism and persistent human
rights abuses – and the result is mass population
displacements.  Those displaced are likely to include
increasing numbers of neglected at-risk populations, that is, those
not covered by any specific, dedicated international legal
frameworks: climate and environmentally induced migrants;
internally displaced persons; stranded migrants, including persons
rescued at sea; and unaccompanied minors.

We can conclude from these global phenomena that (a) migration
is assuming greater policy and strategic significance for States;
(b) large-scale population movements are both inevitable and
unavoidable in the current circumstances described above; and (c)
migration will remain a “megatrend” of the twenty-first
century.

II. BUILDING STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIPS

This brings me to my second point – the importance of our
working together in strategic partnerships to address the
formidable challenges confronting migration and border management;
and to harness the many opportunities for development in countries
or origin and destination.

Many of our partners are here today. I am thinking about the
United Nations Office for Drugs and Crime – with whom I
signed a cooperation agreement in April for closer cooperation to
combat human trafficking, migrant smuggling and to improve border
management – and the UN Counter Terrorism Directorate;
Interpol; ICAO; Frontex; and the World Customs
Organization. 

I am also pleased to see a strong industry presence here –
representatives who develop the technologies and tools that permit
us to work in diverse environments.  They will be exhibiting
some of the latest advances in processing and verification
technology during the week, much of it integral to the overall
theme of this conference – namely, managing risk through
pre-departure data management.

We will continue to look for new strategic partners – such
as ASEAN with whom we are working on a number of border management
reforms; these include the addition of specific watch listing
technology at their member states’ borders. And to use these
various networks to establish regional cooperation
frameworks.  In this regard, I am very pleased that IOM,
together with Bali Process member states and our long-standing
partner UNHCR will soon open a Regional Support Office here in
Bangkok to strengthen collaboration between states in the
region. 

Finally, I am also pleased that my presence here coincides with
the launch of the IOM Document Examination Service Centre at our
Bangkok Regional Office.  The Centre is designed to assist
states, and our partners in the Asia Pacific region, with the
verification of suspected forged and counterfeit travel documents,
filling a critical gap in our arsenal of tools and services to
tackle irregular migration.  And this brings me to my third
and final point: identity protection. 

III. PROTECTING PERSONAL INFORMATION

Finally, we must do our utmost to protect personal information
in all of our initiatives together.   

In the United States alone, 15 million people, or 7% of the
entire adult population, are victims of identity theft each year.
It has been characterized as the world’s fastest growing
crime and costs Governments and Taxpayers millions of dollars each
year. 

Capturing and sharing data is essential for effective border
management.  Data collection allows us to (a) process quickly
individuals passing through our borders in ever-increasing numbers;
(b) reduce queuing at border choke points; and (c) facilitate the
interdiction of those of interest.  Striking the correct
balance, however, is important and we must do all that we can
together to ensure strict adherence to data management and data
protection principles. 

Conclusion

In closing, let me summarize my remarks.

One, migration is here to stay and requires an integrated,
comprehensive approach. The question confronting us all is how
to manage the migration process in a legal, regulated and
responsible manner --- in the best interests of countries,
communities and people, including migrants themselves.

Two, we must work together in partnership.  I know
for example, that despite being the only international organization
whose mandate is exclusively migration – IOM cannot and
should not try, to manage migration alone.  One of my top
priorities over the past three years has been to strengthen and
increase our partnerships and promote a coordinated, regional
approach to migration management.

Three, we must do our utmost to safeguard their personal
information collected by new technologies.

A concluding footnote: This conference will explore the
collection and use of Advanced Passenger Information (API) in
detail.   The value of API is uncontested, however, API
is only truly effective when part and parcel of a range of
Migration and Border Management measures; these include: a balanced
visa regime; training and human resources; travel documents that
meet ICAO standards; and verification measures.

I wish you all an enjoyable conference and look forward to our
time together over the next two days.