PH Shares Concrete Actions to Institutionalize Global Migration Compact    

 Secretary of Foreign Affairs Teodoro L. Locsin, Jr. underscores migrants’ indispensable role during the pandemic and the global community’s responsibility to ensure safe, orderly and regular migration at the 1st International Migration Review Forum General Debate. ( Photo from NYPM)

UNITED NATIONS, NEW YORK CITY 23 May 2022 – The Philippines shared to the international community how it incorporated the objectives of the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly, and Regular Migration (GCM) in domestic policies, as the country fights for the universal commitment to improve the governance of migration.

At the General Debate of the International Migration Review Forum (IMRF), 19 May 2022, Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro L. Locsin, Jr. highlighted the Philippine government’s landmark reforms to adopt the GCM, and realize its 23 objectives.

“We incorporated the GCM in our Development Plan. We enacted a law creating a Department of Migrant Workers to combine all government programs on labor migration. Separately, all of them worked efficiently and in synchrony to get the job done right and fast,” Secretary Locsin said.

“But every department concerned willingly carved out a big part of its function for the sake of unity of command. Mine is the first and only country to make domestic law, the 23 Objectives of the GCM,” the Foreign Affairs Secretary added.

Secretary Locsin said that the Philippine government prioritized the issuance of migrants’ vaccination and vaccination certificates, and established a “green lane” to enable crew change with lesser risk of COVID spreading. He also highlighted Philippines campaigns for repatriating Filipino migrants during the Pandemic as well as freer labor mobility, international cooperation against human trafficking, and tackling the Kafala system.

Secretary Locsin also committed that the Philippine government will do more to promote and protect the rights of Filipino migrant workers and

Moreover, Secretary Locsin enjoined all member-states, international organizations, and trade and labor unions for collaboration to ensure that the rights of migrant workers are upheld across the globe.

“Fight on for GCM and what it stands for: decency as the only way to treat human beings; foremost the stranger in our midst. It was argued in UN debates: the GCM cannot be a compelling law. We replied: the compulsion to act decently is way stronger than law. It is defining of what it is to be a truly, human being,” Secretary Locsin said.

For more information, visit https://www.newyorkpm.dfa.gov.ph https://www.un.int/philippines or https://www.facebook.com/PHMissionNY/. END