The Fifth Global Meeting of Regional Consultative Processes on Migration (RCPs), Cairo, October 22,2015
PRESS ANNOUNCEMENT
Cairo, October 22,2015 – The Fifth Global Meeting of Regional Consultative Processes on Migration (RCPs) Chairs and Secretariats took place in Cairo, Egypt, on October 21-22 under the theme “Exploring Contemporary Migration Challenges: Reflecting on the Outcomes of the 2012 High Level Dialogue on International Migration and Development and the Post-2015 Development Agenda”.
The Chair of the Almaty Process, Government of Kazakhstan representatives and the Support Unit to Almaty Process, International Organization for Migration (IOM) participated and shared the outcomes of the Almaty Process (2011-2015) as a Regional Consultative Process for Central Asia. The representatives of the Government of the Republic of Kazakhstan presented to participants the background of the Almaty Process including the 2013 Ministerial Conference and the Senior Officials Meetings.. The Almaty Process consist of 7 Member States: the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, the Republic of Azerbaijan, the Republic of Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic, the Republic of Tajikistan, the Republic of Turkey and Turkmenistan. The Islamic Republic of Iran and the Islamic Republic of Pakistan are observer States. The current Chair is the Republic of Kazakhstan. The Support Unit of the Almaty Process is run by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
It was noted that labour migration has had a mixed impact on the countries of origin in Central Asia and the broader region. On the one hand, it has provided a stimulus to local development and served as an instrument of balancing labour needs, addressing such issues as youth unemployment, low wages and limited job supply. However, in the long term, large-scale emigration has at times produced negative consequences, putting strain on families, local communities and larger regions. Mitigating those is being recognized as a primary task for local authorities, employment and migration services as well as non-governmental organizations. New challenges have arisen with the fallout from the economic crisis affecting countries of destination, most notably through devaluation reducing the level of remittances and through the application of re-entry bans on irregular migrants. This may result in possible changes in the scale and direction of migrant flows as migrant workers seek alternative locations or seek to re-enter the labour markets back home.
Within the framework of the project “Addressing Mixed Migration Flows through Capacity Building in Central Asia”, funded by the US Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration, Government of the United States (PRM USA) which aims to build the capacity of Central Asian States to manage mixed migration flows, ensure protection of human rights of migrants, refugees and asylum seekers through strengthening regional cooperation and dialogue, in addition to the 2nd Senior Officials Meeting (SOM), three regional activities in support to the Almaty Process were organized by IOM Central Asia.
In 2015, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) Sub regional office for Central Asia in cooperation with Governments conducted a regional training on “Migration Management and Capacity Building on Irregular Migration” in Almaty, Kazakhstan, a Regional Forum on “International Cooperation in the area of Migration and Emergency Preparedness” with high level participants from Central Asian countries and Afghanistan in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan; and a regional training on Disaster Risk Reduction, Emergency Response and IOM’s Migration Crisis Operational Framework (MCOF) in Almaty, Kazakhstan.
In addition the IOM report “Mapping of Irregular Migration in Central Asia 2014” and the field assessment on re-entry banned migrants were presented to the participating governments addressing the scale and characteristics of regular and irregular migratory flows, effects of Eurasian Economic Union enlargement and of imposition of re-entry bans, possibilities of re-integration of returning migrants into the local labour markets and communities, and other crisis triggers in Central Asia.
In the discussion that followed, the Support Unit of the Almaty Process pointed out that the great advantages of the process is that migration management has become an increasingly important policy area as it has been featured in national development strategies and in regional cooperation schemes, of which the Almaty Process is a recent example. Legislative and institutional reforms have in many instances led to a closer inter-agency coordination in such areas as: facilitating immigration of priority groups, regularizing seasonal and local cross-border movement, addressing trafficking in persons and tackling security threats. In addition, Almaty Process promotes international good practices in disaster risk reduction and emergency preparedness through the creation of a regional network of focal points for further coordinated efforts to potential man-made or natural disasters in the Central Asia region.
In the working group discussion the support unit of of the Almaty Process underlined the importance of the cooperation with other RCPs. IOM possess extensive experience on regional consultative processes (Puebla Process, Bali Process, Prague process), working closely with government, non-government stakeholders and other international organizations in addressing the many challenges of complex migratory movements. The good practices of the “Puebla Process” was shared with all government participants of the Almaty Process.