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Join global civil society and migrants in their call to ensure the protection of all migrants, especially those in vulnerable situations, is covered in the GCM.

Civil society prepares a joint statement during the second round of negotiations for the Global Compact for Migration (GCM) in New York #formigration

Ignacio Packer, former head of Terre des Hommes and incoming Executive Director of ICVA (January), and Roula Hamati from the Cross Regional Center for Refugees and Migrants in Lebanon, who was the regional coordinator for the MENA civil society consultation on the Global Compact, guided the two days of meetings during the Civil Society Stocktaking and Strategy Meeting, which took place in Puerto Vallarta Mexico on 2-3 December.

As part of the preparatory process for the Global Compact for Migration, the second Informal Interactive Multi-Stakeholder Hearing took place on 11 October 2017 at the Palais des Nations and was attended by a number of civil society representatives. 

In order to foster representation of civil society working at local and national levels in the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration (GCM) process, IOM has facilitated the organization of seven regional civil society consultations (RCSCs) hosted by civil society from August to October 2017. MADE Partners Migrant Forum in Asia (MFA) and MADE Africa were organizing the RCSC for Asia and Africa, respectively.

Mantalin Kyrou, Policy Associate at the International Catholic Migration Commission (ICMC) delivered a statement on 10 July during the 1st Thematic Discussion on the Global Compact for Refugees. The statement, entitled “Back to the future: Responsibilities we Share, Solutions we Know” welcomed the idea of multiple solutions, with multiple actors to build a Compact worthy of agreement and implementation. Echoing the words of ICMC’s former President Peter Sutherland who urged all to go “back to the future”, it remembered previous humanitarian solutions that made a sizeable impact on the lives of thousands of refugees; including the orderly departure programmes which "offered life-lines" to Vietnamese boat people.

“Walls come down!” Nearly three hundred civil society organizations from around the world gathered in Berlin demanding ‘Safe, Orderly, Regular Migration Now: Mechanics of a Compact Worth Agreeing to’.

Wies Maas, Civil Society Chair of the 10th Global Forum on Migration and Development (GFMD), delivered an urgent message and plea for action from civil society and governments alike at the opening of the GFMD Government Days. 

Wies Maas is Chair of this year's GFMD Civil Society Days, alongside Co-Chair Berenice Valdez Rivera. We caught up with Wies in the week before the GFMD, to find out what is most important to our 2017 GFMD Civil Society Chair during this extraordinary year in the area of migration and development. 
 

The Togo-based civil society organisation, ‘Visions Solidaires’ has recently published their report: "Situational Analysis - Smuggling of Togolese migrant workers and people trafficking in the Middle East and Central Africa". By providing an important contribution to present evidence of the exploitation and vulnerability of African migrant workers moving in a South-South and trans-regional context, it also connects its detailed findings to the substantive work undertaken by the Migration and Development (MADE) Civil Society Network, and more specifically to its Open Working Group on Labour Migration and Recruitment. MADE, guided by the 5 year 8 point Plan of Action, has advocated for ethical recruitment standards and safe labour migration on a global and inter-regional level to protect and empower migrant workers at every stage of the labour cycle.