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Ministers, Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is a great honour to be here to participate in the celebration of the 20th anniversary of the Budapest Process in this beautiful and historic city of Istanbul, an appropriate venue for this event not only because it connects two continents as the Budapest Process does, but also because it has experienced diverse forms of migratory movements throughout its history.

I would like to extend my appreciation to the Government of Turkey for the hospitality and for closely associating IOM with the Silk Routes Region Working Group from its initiation, to the co-Chair, the Government of Hungary, and to ICMPD for their excellent contribution as the Secretariat.  IOM is pleased to see the strong commitment to advance the Budapest Process further.

Excellencies,

Today, nobody questions that international migration has implications for all countries that go far beyond the borders of any State and that should be addressed through inter-state dialogue and cooperation. The Budapest Process, over its 20 years of existence, has proved so and evolved over time into a significant consultative state-led process that reflects the complexities and challenges of the phenomenon of migration and addresses wider migration concerns, including better management of migration and mobility, and is moving today to a trans-regional forum.

IOM looks forward to the adoption of the "Istanbul Ministerial Declaration on a Silk Routes Partnership for Migration" as a very important outcome of this Process that paves the way for critical dialogue on key migration issues in an increasingly complex and important region of the world.

We especially welcome the focus in the “Istanbul Ministerial Declaration” on mainstreaming migration into development; a topic particularly timely in the year of the UN General Assembly High-level Dialogue on International Migration and Development to be held in early October 2013 in New York and in view of the on-going preparations of the post-2015 UN Development Agenda. IOM and its partners in the Global Migration Group and beyond, are committed to increase understanding of the importance of the governance of human mobility and its impacts on the sustainable development – as was recognised most recently, by the Dhaka Declaration of the Global Leadership Meeting on Population Dynamics in the Context of the Post-2015 Development Agenda.

While the Silk Routes are historically remembered primarily as avenues of commercial interaction between East and West, at the same time they were, and continue to be, significant migration corridors between Asia and Europe. It is thus fundamental to study and understand the migratory flows and analyse how these flows can be managed in a manner that benefit all actors involved. IOM welcomes the potential for the Budapest Process to foster a comprehensive approach that will balance 1) the facilitation of movements for economic, commercial, social and cultural purposes, 2) an effective control of irregular movements; and 3) the protection of the rights and wellbeing of migrants.

The countries in the Silk Routes Region face key challenges in better organising labour migration; preventing irregular migration and facilitating regular migration; protecting vulnerable migrants and victims of trafficking; developing better border management systems and strengthening the capacity of border management officials; increasing the security of travel and identity documents; developing readmission capacities; and mainstreaming migration into development, among others.

The Budapest Process offers a platform in the Silk Routes Region for the necessary inter-state dialogue and cooperation and the development of joint efforts to tackle these challenges. IOM has a very strong presence in Silk Routes countries that has been built up over many years, rich experience in the region with a strong platform of activities in all the areas of interest to the participating countries, and a long history of very close and effective collaboration with the several governmental entities along the Silk Routes Region.

I would like to reiterate IOM's readiness to extend support to the Silk Routes Partnership and to create synergies with its important portfolio of activities in the region in order to facilitate the achievement of the goals hereby agreed, implement new activities and enhance the capacity of officials in thematic areas outlined for future cooperation in the Istanbul Declaration.

But let me be very strait forward on the following; participating states, IOM, as well as some other international organisations present here, are already directly implementing, and collaborating with Governments in implementing, a myriad of activities that relate to the priority issues identified by you in the Istanbul Declaration. Therefore we need, as a first step, to take stock of what has been done and what is in the process of being implemented, in order to determine where the gaps that need to be urgently addressed are and set priority of action. IOM would like to undertake a mapping of all existing projects in the region, including those implemented by other counterparts, in order to give you a clear understanding on where we are and facilitate your identification of priorities and gaps that can be filled at the regional level.

IOM actively supports and has extensive experience in a number of Regional Consultative Processes throughout the world, including some of the “neighbouring” processes of the Budapest Process, such as the Bali Process, the Colombo Process as well as the nascent Almaty Process. It will also be important to link with those processes to avoid potential duplication of activities. Since 2005, IOM has organised Global Meetings of Chairs and Secretariats of Regional Consultative Processes on a biennial basis to strengthen the interaction of RCPs and enhance inter-State cooperation on migration. The fourth of these meetings will take place on 22-23 May of this year in Lima, Peru and will be dedicated to the broad theme of “Defining the Place of RCPs in a Changing International Migration Landscape”. I look forward to the participation of the Chairs there.

Before I end, let me thank the Government and the people of Turkey for their generosity and hospitality offered to the hundreds of thousands of Syrian nationals fleeing the crises for nearly two years, and to commend the tireless efforts of all our partners in helping the people of Syria.

Finally, I would like to assure you on behalf of my organization that as the leading inter-governmental organization in the field of migration, IOM is committed to providing expert support to the international community and its member States and other partners to achieve the full development potential of migration. We stand committed and ready to promote more orderly and humane mobility, in order to harness the positive potential of migration and ensure better protection of migrants.

Thank you.