Majority of UN nations back migration deal; United States doesn’t

Defying fierce opposition from the United States and a few other nations, nearly 85 percent of the countries at the U.N. agreed Monday on a sweeping yet non-binding accord to ensure safe, orderly and humane migration.

The debate over the Global Compact for Migration, the first of its kind, has proven to be a pivotal test of the U.N.-led effort to crack down on the often dangerous and illegal movements across borders that have turned people smuggling into a booming worldwide industry.

“Unregulated migration bears a terrible human cost: a cost in lives lost on perilous journeys across deserts, oceans and rivers; and a cost in lives ruined at the hands of smugglers, unscrupulous employers and other predators,” U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told a migration conference in Marrakech, Morocco.

“More than 60,000 migrants have died on the move since the year 2000,” he said. “This is a source of collective shame.”

SOURCE: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2018/12/10/un-migration-accord-nations-agree-deal-morocco/2262379002/

1 reply

Comments are closed.