Safe Migration Pact of United Nations and role of the United States

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The United States is leading the global anti-immigration sentiment as representatives rejected to agree to a new nonbinding United Nations accord to ensure safe, orderly and humane migration. Around 85% of U.N member states agreed to the Global Compact for Migration on Monday. A minority of nations remained opposed.

Diplomats gathered for a migration conference in Marrakech, Morocco, over the weekend. They were addressed by U.N Secretary-General António Guterres and warned “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.

At least 60,000 migrants have died on the move since the year 2000. Most of them were driven by war, climate change, persecution, and poverty. Rapidly increasing migration has created tensions in many parts of the world. Fear of high migration has buoyed populist and right-wing movements across Europe and in the United States. The U.N agreement establishes framework cooperation in dealing with global migration. It requires signatories to agree to take a number of steps.

The ultimate objectives are to decrease illegal migration, help integrate migrants and return them to their home countries. All 193 members, except the United States, finalized the pact in July. The opponents have since fought back. 164 out of 193 members of the U.N approved the new migration pact Monday. The holdouts were Australia, Austria, the Czech Republic, the Dominican Republic, Hungary, Latvia, Poland, Slovakia and the supporters of the United States.