Guyanese within the Diaspora are as many as those still residing in Guyana. This is according to Minister of Citizenship, Mr. Winston Felix, who is conscious of the unique role migrants can play in the transformation of societies.
The Citizenship Minister was speaking on this state of affairs as he addressed a United Nations (UN) forum in Marrakesh, Morocco to which he led a Guyanese delegation. The forum is an Inter-governmental Conference intended to formally adopt the International Community’s first Global Compact for Migration, as agreed by UN Member States on July 13, 2018.
The Guyanese delegation represents the Group of Latin American and Caribbean Countries as Vice Chair on the Bureau of the Conference and serves as Rapporteur General of the Conference. Minister Felix also presided over the Plenary Session of the Conference and presented the Rapporteur General’s Report.
The Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration, negotiated and agreed at UN Headquarters in New York, establishes a series of agreed principles and commitments made by Member States to address the issue of international migration in a holistic manner. It is expected, once implemented, the Compact will make an important contribution to global governance and enhance international coordination on international migration, present a framework for comprehensive international cooperation on migrants and human mobility and deal with all aspects of international migration.
Minister Felix noted that the “Compact will also play a crucial role in the furtherance of our commitment to the pursuit of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development”.
The local delegation also included Principal Foreign Service Officer and Head of the Diaspora Unit in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Michael Brotherson, Permanent Mission of Guyana in Geneva; Ms. Bibi Ally and Foreign Service Officer II in the Diaspora Unit, Ms. Stephanie Savory.
Prior to the conference, Brotherson and Ally represented Guyana at the 11th Summit Meeting of the Global Forum for Migration and Development which was also held in Marrakesh. That Forum served as a precursor to the Intergovernmental Conference and brought together a number of stakeholders in a voluntary, informal, non-binding manner to advance understanding and cooperation on the mutually reinforcing relationship between migration and development.
