Thank you to Ambassador Hamamoto for hosting this consultation and inviting me to participate.

Thank you as well to the Government of Australia and Ms. Kate O’Malley, in particular, as the current Chair of the IGC for making this meeting possible.

And thanks to the Governments of the Philippines and the United States for taking up the call of the Special Representative of the Secretary General for International Migration and Development, Peter Sutherland, to develop a State-led initiative to address the situation of migrants in countries in crisis. 

I have three very brief points to make:

First, with 232 international migrants in the world today, every country is host to some sort of migrant population.  At the same time, no country is invulnerable to disaster, as we learned regrettably from Hurricanes Sandy and Katrina in the United States and the Tohoku triple disaster in Japan.  And while conflict situations continue to plague some regions of the world, natural disasters know no geographical or developmental bounds.

Second, migrants are too often invisible – or simply not accounted for – in disaster preparedness and response. Yet their rights, dignity and needs are as important as those of nationals.  And the consequences of not addressing the needs and rights of migrants reverberate well beyond migrants themselves and affect families, and host and home communities and societies who depend on them for livelihoods and the stability of economies. Consequently, preparing for, responding to, and addressing the longer term developmental impacts of migrants caught in countries in crisis is a challenge and imperative for all of us. 

Which brings me to my third, and final, point.  While international organizations like IOM and our partners are working diligently to address these issues in ways which you will hear about over the coming two days, Peter Sutherland is right:  The time is right for a State-led initiative to develop non-binding guiding principles and effective practices that take into account the roles and responsibilities of all relevant stakeholders – countries of origin, transit and destination, private employers, recruiters, civil society, migrant organizations and more – and all phases of a crisis.  Together, I am convinced that we can reduce vulnerability, save lives, better protect the dignity and rights of migrants and mitigate negative development impacts.  I salute you for taking up this challenge and offer you the full support of IOM.