IOM Director General William Lacy Swing and the Secretary General
of the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) Group of States
Mohammed Ibn Chambas have today signed an agreement at the ACP
Headquarters in Brussels committing the two bodies to closer
cooperation on a wide range of migration-related
issues.     

The agreement aims to provide practical assistance to the 79 ACP
Members States to help them optimize the benefits of migration for
poverty reduction and sustainable development.

“Migration has always played a crucial role in shaping ACP
societies. It is now our duty to ensure that its negative effects
are reduced and to do our best to make migration as positive force
for development,” said ACP Secretary General Mohammed Ibn
Chambas.

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Links alt="" border="0" height="12" hspace="0" src=
"/jahia/webdav/site/myjahiasite/shared/shared/mainsite/graphics/interface/icons_buttons/blue_link_box.gif"> "http://www.acpmigration-obs.org/" target="_blank" title="">ACP
Observatory on Migration

Director General William Lacy Swing said the agreement
illustrates the importance given by IOM to migration in the
African, Caribbean and Pacific region. “Our partnership with
the ACP Secretariat and Group of States demonstrates our common
will and determination to realize the many potential benefits of
migration. The signing of this agreement will help us to take
another step towards this goal.”

Cooperation between IOM and the ACP Group of States has already
led to the launch on 25 October of the Observatory on Migration, an
initiative of the ACP Secretariat empowered by IOM and funded by
the European Union with the financial support of Switzerland.

The Observatory aims to establish a network of research
institutions and governmental entities dealing with migration in
the six ACP regions, namely West Africa, Central Africa, East
Africa, Southern Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific. Activities
will start in 12 pilot countries (Angola, Cameroon, the Democratic
Republic of  the Congo, Haiti, Kenya, Lesotho, Nigeria, Papua
New Guinea, Senegal, Tanzania, Timor-Leste and Trinidad and
Tobago).

Although much of the global focus on migration is on human
mobility from the South to the North, almost half of all emigration
from developing countries is to other developing countries –
South-South migration. Yet little is known about this phenomenon
which, for example, has traditionally been used in many African
countries as a livelihood strategy. Africa is also home to the
largest numbers of internally displaced people and refugees. The
Caribbean and Pacific regions too are marked by inter-regional
migration.

Meanwhile, a photo exhibition on the human face of migration in
ACP countries is taking place at the ACP House to mark
International Migrants Day on 18 December.

To find more about the ACP Observatory on Migration, please go
to "http://www.acpmigration-obs.org/" target="_blank" title=
"">http://www.acpmigration-obs.org/

 

For more information, please contact:

Robert Iroga

Press & Information Officer at the Secretariat of the ACP Group
of States

Tel: +32 (0)2 743 06 17

E-mail "mailto:Iroga@acp.int" target="_blank" title=
"">Iroga@acp.int

Jean-Philippe Chauzy

Head, Media and Communications Department, IOM

Tel +41 22 717 93 61

E-mail jpchauzy@iom.int