Guangdong Province — IOM, the UN Migration Agency, facilitated a field visit this week (16-18 August) to the Guangdong provincial cities of Zhuhai and Shenzhen for a delegation of consular officials from European Union embassies in Beijing.

Zhuhai and Shenzhen, in Guangdong’s Pearl River Delta region, see significant migratory flows as both are close to the Special Administrative Regions (SARs) of Macao and Hong Kong.

The visit, organized within the framework of the EU–China Dialogue on Migration and Mobility Support project aimed to enhance the visitors’ understanding of migration management policies and systems in the region, which are designed to facilitate mobility while combating irregular migration.

The delegation, which included officials from the embassies of Estonia, Hungary, Lithuania, Slovenia and Slovakia, was welcomed by local officials from China’s Bureau of Exit and Entry Administration, and visited various exit and entry ports. 

Guangdong province has historically been a hub of migration and mobility, and the Pearl River Delta region exemplifies China’s renewed efforts to facilitate the movement of goods and people. The region is also an important global trade centre within the framework of the One Belt, One Road (OBOR) initiative, which aims to improve infrastructure across the participating countries in Asia, Africa, Europe and the Middle East.

For more information, please contact Etienne Micallef at IOM Beijing, Tel. +86 13 811 209 875, Email: emicallef@iom.int