Legal Frameworks on Migration

The Mexican legislation provides for a humanitarian residence permit for migrants who are victims or witnesses of a crime committed in the national territory. 

In Austria, a residence permit is granted if a person cannot be returned because the removal would be in violation of the right to private and family life within the meaning of Article 8 of the European Convention of Human Rights.

Within the EU-funded ENIGMMA project, implemented by the International Centre for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD), project team together with Georgian state institutions and stakeholders in the destination country started a practice of joint development of legal residence guidelines for Georgian migrants in several destination countries (Greece, Spain and Italy). On the Georgian side, the Georgian Diaspora department within MFA is involved, alongside the State Commission on Migration Issues, the Consular Department of MFA, and consular services abroad.

Uruguay has introduced specific measures to minimize administrative irregularity linked with international human mobility and is pursuing legal framework revisions to promote migrants’ rights, bilateral and multilateral social security agreements, visa waiver agreements, and various measures in line with civil society recommendations.

The most significant examples of regularization and access to residence and identity documents are the following:

The Global Refugee Sponsorship Initiative (GRSI) is a joint initiative led by the Government of Canada; the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR); the Open Society Foundations; the Giustra Foundation; and the University of Ottawa, which works to share good practices and support the creation of new programs to assit countries around the world to open new pathways for refugee protection through community sponsorship programs. 

Established in 2006, the NGO Committee on Migration is a committee of non-governmental organisations, which has consultative status with the ECOSOC. The Committee brings together over 50 NGOs who seek to realize justice for migrants, refugees, stateless persons, internally displaced persons, and trafficked persons. 

OM, the UN Migration Agency, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to facilitate the ethical recruitment of Filipino workers between the Philippines and the Canadian provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan. The agreement will involve pilot testing the International Recruitment Integrity System (IRIS).

The agreement was signed on 8 June 2018 by IOM, the Ministry of Service of Alberta, the Ministry of Labour Relations and Workplace Safety of Saskatchewan and the Department of Labor and Employment of the Republic of the Philippines.

In October 2018, Nepal signed a labour agreement with Malaysia, the preferred job destination for Nepali migrant workers.

Nepali Minister of Labour, Employment and Social Security Gokarna Bista and Malaysian Human Resources Minister M. Kulasegaran signed the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on the Recruitment, Employment, and Repatriation of Workers amidst a special function in the Capital.

Foreigners in Mexico who find themselves in any of the following circumstances shall be authorized this status which allows them to stay in the country:

a) Being an injured party, victim of or witness to any crime committed in national territory.  The injured party or victim shall be deemed to be that person who is the passive subject of criminal conduct, regardless of whether the perpetrator is identified, apprehended, prosecuted or convicted, and irrespective of the family relationship between the victim and the perpetrator.

IOM’s Family Assistance Programme (FAP) was launched in March 2016 and is funded by the German Federal Foreign Office. The central aim of the programme is to support families in vulnerable situations to reunite with their relatives in Germany.  The programme facilitates access to family reunification, by assisting migrants with the visa application process.