Your Excellency, Mr. Sadik Ahmetovic, Deputy Prime Minister and

Minister of Security for Bosnia and Herzegovina;

Your Excellency, Dr. Maria Fekter, Austrian Federal Minister of
the Interior;

Your Excellencies Ministers and Heads of Delegations;

Distinguished Religious Leaders and Government Officials,
Excellencies, Representatives of the Diplomatic Corps,
Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen:

Introduction:

It is a singular honour to be here in the historic city of
Sarajevo.

I am particularly grateful to Deputy Prime Minister Ahmetovic
and Minister Fekter for the kind invitation to participate in this
distinguished gathering --- a gathering of 14 countries that
together are pursuing the noble objective of advancing peace and
security for all people of the Western Balkans.

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) has for many
years enjoyed close relations with both our host Governments,
Austria and Bosnia and Herzegovina.

While I have no authority to speak in behalf of the United
Nations, I know that much the same is true for them – a large
and abiding interest in being a partner with the Western Balkans
countries. And IOM is proud of its relations with the UN: although
independent, IOM works closely with UN agencies around the globe
through the UN Country Teams.

IOM has worked with Austrian officials since the early 1950s,
when several hundreds of thousands of European refugees displaced
by the Second World War transited Austria for processing before
travelling overseas.

In the decades since, IOM’s partnership with Austria has
evolved significantly; today, in addition to refugee resettlement,
we are taking joint action to counter trafficking in human beings,
to support migrant integration, and other initiatives that advance
orderly and humane migration management.

In the case of Bosnia and Herzegovina, IOM came on the scene in
the early 1990s during the war to provide humanitarian
assistance.  IOM helped civilians move out of conflict areas
and receive protection in foreign countries.  IOM medically
evacuated civilians who would otherwise have died for lack of
access to medical care.

In the aftermath of the conflict, IOM assisted with the return
of refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs); 
facilitated the return  to Bosnia of qualified nationals to
help re-build the country’s essential structures; and devised
programmes to reintegrate vulnerable groups of people -including
demobilized soldiers - socially and economically.

The past decade has seen a quantum leap in peace and security in
all of the countries of the Western Balkans represented here today.
This has been achieved in no small measure through intensive
inter-cultural dialogue; I salute the courage and commitment of
countries and communities to restore the region’s tradition
of tolerance and coexistence.

By meeting here in the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina, we pay
homage to the rich inter-faith customs and cultures of the Western
Balkans --- reflected in the unity and diversity that is Sarajevo
--- a cultural cross road of civilizations, a so-called
“Jerusalem of Europe.”  (On a personal note, I am
pleased to note that our daughter spent four years in Mostar and
three years in neighbouring Croatia with UN Peacekeeping Missions,
where she lived with local families and learned to speak the
language. And I have been privileged to work with UN peacekeepers
from several Western Balkans countries).

I. Dedicated inter-cultural dialogue

Let me use global migration to highlight my first point -- the
importance of intercultural dialogue in addressing the most
critical challenges of our time -- such as managing migration in a
humane, orderly and beneficial manner for all.

We live in an era of the greatest human mobility in recorded
history. Besides some 214 million international migrants, there are
an estimated 740 million internal migrants, many of these
Internally Displaced Persons.  In other words, a total of
nearly 1 billion persons are on the move; that means roughly one
out of every seven persons in the world is a migrant.

Large-scale flows of people will likely continue throughout this
century for a variety of reasons.

These include:

• demographic and skills deficits in much of the industrialized
  world,
• aging populations and dramatically declining birth-rates,
  amounting to present and longer-term negative population growth in
  Europe and other industrialized areas,
• global supply chains resulting from economic integration,
• and the effects in the South of climate change, food scarcity
  and conflict, high birth rates and a slow pace of job
  creation.

All of these elements will ensure continuing large-scale human
migration for decades to come.

The implications of these global migration trends for the
Western Balkans are many.  Once lands of origin and transit
for migrants, this region is now also becoming a destination
point.

Here in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the rich cultural diversity and
joint historic and cultural heritage have been recognized as the
driving force for promoting wider tolerance, acceptance and
understanding in the difficult post-war period; your diversity also
provides economic opportunities that in themselves deliver
development and security.

Speaking on behalf of the wider UN, I am very pleased that the
UN Country Team in BiH has addressed the value of intercultural
dialogue through its 3-year joint programming initiative on
building cultural understanding in BiH.  On behalf of the UN
Resident Coordinator in BiH, I would like to thank the BiH
Government at state, entity and local levels for recognizing the
benefits of this programme and for a very productive
cooperation.

More needs to be done, in my view, to establish cultural
dialogue; to inform, educate, and build public consensus on
migration and in particular, the contribution of migrants to our
societies.

Consider  for example, the contribution of Balkan Diaspora
communities to the economies of Australia, Canada and the US --- at
the same time, consider the sizeable remittances that the Balkan
Diaspora send home representing a significant portion of the
region’s GDP.  On a global scale, migrants generate
annual remittances of more than $300 billion to benefit the global
economy.  Global migrant remittances – that is the money
the Diaspora sends back home --are two to three times larger than
all Overseas Development Assistance (ODA) and are on a par with all
Foreign Direct Investment (FDI).

We all know that there is no “clash of
civilizations” -- only a good deal of ignorance and
stereotypes that lead to a public backlash against migration and to
restrictive migration policies --- restrictions that only aggravate
today’s migration challenges and drive migrants into the
hands of human traffickers, globalization’s slave
traders.

These failed policies need not continue to plague our societies
if a public consensus can be reached through information and
education and a dedicated dialogue among states and regions to move
forward together.

II. Principled persuasion through the
"whole of society" approach

My second point: it is important to engage all interested
parties in a “whole of society approach” to advance
intercultural dialogue on internal security through principled
persuasion – not force.

Our gathering here this week of representatives of Bosnia and
Herzegovina’s great religions, together with Government
officials and civil society, sends a strong signal of our united
stand against radicalism on the one hand,  and the championing
of tolerance and cultural diversity on the other.

Religious institutions and organizations are often the first to
comfort and assist people in need, who -- in the search for a
better life, or fleeing from war or persecution - - may find
themselves in dire straits.  In other circumstances, religious
institutions and associations help newly arrived migrants integrate
into their new host societies, and often help to minimize
discrimination and xenophobia.

III. Internal Security

My third and final point. We need to maintain the tenuous
linkage between individual rights and freedoms on the one hand, and
internal security, on the other.

States have every right to control their borders and to
safeguard the security of their citizens.

States require capacity to fight people smugglers, drug and
human traffickers, and to confront organized criminal groups, often
dressed in flags of nationalism and extremism.

But States also have a responsibility to craft constructive
responses that respect human rights.  All people, including
irregular migrants, have rights.  These include the right to
human dignity, physical integrity, as well as safety and freedom
from racism and discrimination.

It is in the best interest of all states to allow people to move
out of choice, rather than necessity -- to provide safe, orderly
and lawful migratory channels.  In doing so, we will be able
to minimize insecurity and risk and maximize the enormous
contribution that migrants make to the global economy and human
development.

Conclusion

In closing let me summarize the three points I have tried to
make.

One: Intercultural dialogue among states, regions, countries and
communities is one of the most effective agents for social change
to address the most critical issues of our time, including
migration.

Two: A "whole of society approach" builds consensus among all
interested parties --- that principled persuasion – not force
-- is the society's best defence against intolerance and
extremism.

Three: While States have an obligation to protect their borders
and provide internal security for their citizens, they also have an
obligation to protect the rights and freedoms of our common
humanity, including the millions of migrants on the move.