Objective 9: Strengthen the transnational response to smuggling of migrants

All ASEAN Member States adopted  in 2007 the ASEAN Declaration on the Protection and Promotion of the Rights of Migrant Workers.

The Declaration underlines ASEAN Member States’ commitments to, among others, promote decent, humane, and dignified employment, as well as prevent and curb smuggling and trafficking of persons. Indonesia and ASEAN member states are now working towards the establishment of a legally-binding instrument on the protection of all migrant workers, regardless of their employment status.

The European Union introduced a new Migration Partnership Framework in June 2016 that fully integrates migration in the European Union’s foreign policy. This is a key element of the European Union Global Strategy.

#rumoursaboutgermany – a new Federal Foreign Office website aims to get the facts out to migrants, making them less susceptible to misinformation spread by human traffickers.

Budapest Process is a good example of cooperation between countries of two regions; Europe and Asia. A successful process, it gathers over 50 countries and more than ten international organisations. It aims to foster dialogue and share best practices in managing migration flows in order to achieve concrete and results-oriented outcomes.

The Almaty Process aims to address the multiple challenges resulting from complex migration dynamics and mixed migratory movements in Central Asia and the wider region, in a cooperative and coordinated manner.

The Almaty Process promotes sustained dialogue and exchange of information on migration issues and on refugee protection challenges such as, but not limited to:

• Irregular migration
• Human Trafficking
• Migrant Vulnerabilities
• Migrant Integration
• Human Mobility
• Human Rights of Migrants.

Khartoum Process brings together 40 European, Horn of Africa and Mediterranean African countries, the European External Action Service, the European Commission, the African Union Commission and seven regional organisations, with a view to preventing and tackling the challenges of human trafficking and smuggling of migrants between the Horn of Africa and Europe, in a spirit of partnership, shared responsibility and cooperation. 

Khartoum Process is led by a Steering Committee comprised of:

Egypt launched a new national strategy on combating illegal migration under the auspices of the National Committee for Combating and Preventing Illegal Migration (NCCPIM). The Strategy, which includes an action plan for the next two years, will ensure the protection of vulnerable migrants in Egypt  and will provide viable alternatives to illegal migration.

Following the Valetta Summit on Migration, the EU agreed on the Valetta Action plan --an extensive, balanced and efficient implementation plan built around five priority fields:

• addressing root causes of irregular migration
• promoting legal migration and mobility
• reinforcing of protection
• preventing and fighting smuggling and human trafficking
• strengthening cooperation in return and reintegration.

The Bahamas and the Haitian governments signed three agreements intended to further trade development between both countries and lead to a decrease in illegal migration. The agreements include a framework for bilateral cooperation, an agreement on trade and technical cooperation in agriculture and fisheries, and an agreement on the promotion and protection of investments. They cover the “need to create favourable conditions for investments” in both the Bahamas and Haiti, and urged each side to promote possible investments in one another’s private sectors, among other provisions.