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Mexico Will Co-Chair UN Migration Group

Children walk through a field outside a makeshift camp for refugees and migrants at the Greek-Macedonian border near the village of Idomeni, Greece, May 13, 2016. REUTERS/Marko Djurica

Mexico will co-chair a new UN initiative established Friday which aims to change the negative narrative that exists in the world on migration, and instead highlight the contributions made by migrants to their destination countries. The so-called Group of Friends of Migration will also be co-chaired by the permanent representatives of Bangladesh, Benin and Sweden, and has already gained support from another 20 countries representing all regions of the world.

A group of people who tried to cross the border walk back to a makeshift camp for refugees and migrants at the Greek-Macedonian border near the village of Idomeni, Greece, May 11, 2016. Photo: Reuters/Marko Djurica

According to the Mission of Mexico to the UN, the initiative represents “an effort to offer and highlight a positive narrative on migration” towards the high-level summit on the subject to be held in the UN General Assembly next September 19.

The initiative says the effort “represents a vital space for informal discussion within the UN to exchange views on the multiple dimensions of migration, and to seize opportunities for cooperation at the multilateral level.”

Cuban migrants without permission to enter Costa Rica, protest at a border post with Panama in Paso Canoas, Costa Rica, April 14, 2016. Photo: Reuters/John Duran, File

At a meeting in which participated the deputy secretary general of the UN, Jan Eliasson, the permanent representative of Mexico, Juan José Gómez Camacho said that the discussion within the group can generate migration policies in line with the Sustainable Development Goals.

In that sense, Gómez Camacho urged his counterparts to recognize that migration is a multidimensional reality of the twenty-first century, and not a series of regional situations.

Meanwhile, Eliasson welcomed the establishment of the group, and regretted that contemporary narratives on migration is generally negative.

He explained that with 244 million migrants worldwide, according to the UN, the international community has a responsibility to protect the rights of these people and exploit the potential transboundary movement.

Migrants arrive by the Italian coastguard vessel Peluso in the Sicilian harbour of Augusta, Italy, May 13, 2016. Photo: Reuters/Antonio Parrinello, File

“A good international solution is in the best national interest of all Member States,” said Eliasson.

Participants in the meeting expressed their intention that the group’s work goes beyond the summit and that this is only the beginning of an effort to empower migrants and to recognize them as subjects of rights and development actors.