The Minister of Foreign Affairs and Worship of Argentina, Jorge Faurie, and the Head of the EU Delegation in Argentina, Aude Maio-Coliche, launched a project to support Argentina’s refugee reception and integration policy, contributing also to its Programme for refugees from Syria. The programme is financed under the EU’s Partnership Instrument and implemented by UNHCR and IOM.
Global forced displacement is at an unprecedented level, with 68,5 million people forcibly displaced as a result of persecution, conflict, generalized violence, or human rights violations. Among them are almost 25.4 million refugees. The conflict in Syria only has created some 6.3 million refugees on top of the 6.2 million internally displaced persons.
Migration is a global challenge, which requires a global response from all key international players.
The launch of this project with UNHCR and IOM reflects the commitment of the European Union and Argentina to work together in the global governance of migration flows, in line with their promotion within the UN of the negotiation of a “Global Compact on Migration”.
The project will have a duration of two years and is funded by the EU’s Partnership Instrument with a grant of € 2 million. Implemented by IOM and UNHCR, it seeks to reinforce the institutional capacities of the Argentine State in the management of the mechanisms for reception and integration of the beneficiaries of Argentina’s Syria Programme. It comprises, amongst others, activities of empowerment of the actors involved, language teaching and the development of applications to share information and empowerment of women and girls.
Through the Partnership Instrument, the EU cooperates with partners around the world to advance the Union’s strategic interests and tackle global challenges.
Argentina’s Syria Programme (Special Humanitarian Visa Programme for People Affected by the Conflict in the Arab Republic of Syria) allows citizens, organizations, and institutions in Argentina to support people fleeing the conflict in Syria and looking for refuge in Argentina. The Argentine National Directorate of Migration (DNM) established an interinstitutional roundtable to articulate implementation of activities within the Syria programme. This roundtable, coordinated by DNM’s Directorate for International and Social Affairs has, amongst others, the objective to monitor follow-up given to the implementation of the Programme and to ensure facilitation of the integration process of its beneficiaries through different measures, while at the same time maintaining meetings with interested authorities and organised groups, linked inter alia to the churches, willing to collaborate on the situation of Syrians in Argentina.
In September 2016, the UN General Assembly decided to develop a Global Compact for safe, orderly and regular migration. The process to develop the Global Compact for migration started in April 2017. In 2018, the General Assembly shall hold an intergovernmental conference on International Migration with a view to the adoption of a Global Compact. The Global Compact for Migration will be the first agreement, prepared under the auspices of the United Nations and negotiated at intergovernmental level, to cover all dimensions of international migration from a holistic and comprehensive way.
Original source: EEAS
Published on 27 June 2018
