Ghana backs moves to fostering human-centred migration governance
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has welcomed the Global Compact for Migration adopted to safeguard the human rights and fair treatment of migrants.
He said the treaty was a landmark development, which would ensure that migrants everywhere would have their rights and dignity respected.
The President said this in an address read for him by Mr. Stephen Yakubu, Ghana’s Ambassador to the Kingdom of Morocco, at the United Nations (UN) intergovernmental conference held in Marrakech to adopt the Compact.
Ghana, he said, shared the view that migration was a multi-faceted phenomenon involving humanitarian, human rights and demographic issues which had deep economic, environmental and political implications and “forms part of the way the world develops, interacts and interconnects”.
The Compact seeks to promote safe, orderly and regular migration in the UN member countries.
The treaty is based on the principles of the UN Charter relating to the mobility of non-nationals, and affirms that refugees and migrants are entitled to the same universal human rights and fundamental freedoms, which must be respected, protected and fulfilled at all times.
It has been calibrated to address risks and challenges for individuals and communities in countries of origin, transit and destination, to optimize the overall benefits of migration.
President Akufo-Addo said the challenges and opportunities of international migration should “unite, rather than divide us”.
The world, he noted, had seen unusual migration flows, something that needed to be handled and addressed, multilaterally.
He told the conference that unregulated migration had created false and negative perceptions of migrants that fed into a narrative of xenophobia, intolerance and racism.
President Akufo-Addo highlighted the positive contribution of migrants and diasporans to sustainable development, citing knowledge and skills transfer, and said, that could not go unnoticed.
He spoke against migration holding camps and shelters, disembarkation platforms, processing and other de-facto migrant detention centres and said these could be serious violations of the human rights of migrants.
Source: GNA