Friday, 16 October 2015
The 8th Summit Meeting of the Global Forum for Migration and Development took place in Istanbul on 14-16 October 2015, hosted by former Foreign Minister Feridun Sinirlioğlu. Turkey is chairing the GFMD since 1 July 2014.
Prime Minister H.E. Ahmet Davutoğlu inaugurated the Forum which brings together participants from 150 countries and high level officials of international organizations, particularly UN Deputy Secretary-General, UN High Commissioner for Refugees, UN Alliance of Civilizations High Representative, and UN Special Representative of the Secretary-General for International Migration, EU Commissioner for Migration, Home Affairs and Citizenship as well as representatives of non-governmental organizations and addressed the participants.
In his address, Prime Minister Davutoğlu hailed the Forum as a unique and the most broadly participated event bringing together many countries from different continents of the world. Prime Minister Davutoğlu also underlined that discussing the latest issues topping the migration and development agenda with the active participation of the representatives of international organizations, civil society and private sector in İstanbul for three days is a timely and opportune event and touched upon the migration crisis. Stressing the need to come up together with solutions to the tragedies on the basis of common humanitarian values rather than ignoring them, Prime Minister Davutoğlu drew attention to Turkey’s exemplary efforts for the Syrian and Iraqi refugees for four years. In his address, Prime Minister Davutoğlu reminded that Turkey hosts the largest number of refugees according to the figures of UNHCR and also drew attention to the contrast between the aid offered by Turkey to Syrian refugees, which is 8 billion US Dollars, and the total amount of aid extended by the international community, which remains at 417 million US Dollars.
Around 30 Ministers and Vice-Ministers dealing with migration and development policy fields attended the opening ceremony of the 8th GFMD Summit.
Speaking at the Global Forum on Migration and Development, Foreign Minister Sinirlioğlu said “Until and unless we proactively push for and support peace processes to end ongoing conflicts; address the humanitarian suffering first and foremost where it is taking place; establish and enforce safe zones where we can protect civilians from indiscriminate acts of violence; and, aggressively and resolutely take the fight to the terrorists wherever they are finding havens, we cannot prevent the kind of spontaneous mass migration that has taken us all by storm.” Underlining that the time is ripe to mobilize our efforts, address the root causes that trigger patterns of migration and prevent conflicts, Foreign Minister Sinirlioğlu stressed Turkey’s commitment to spare no effort to protect human lives through the strengthening of cooperation and partnerships. Foreign Minister Sinirlioğlu also reiterated Turkey’s resolve to continue its proactive efforts to prevent conflicts.