Regional Consultative Processes and International Regional Fora

Ecuador has negotiated a residence agreement with the countries of Mercosur and Mercosur’s associated countries with the aim of regularizing the South American migrants that are in Ecuador as well as the Ecuadorians living in countries within the region. This enables nationals and migrants alike to stay in their countries of desitnation for a specific period of time, or apply for residency after two years.

Official representatives from 38 member countries and associate members of the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) adopted the Montevideo Consensus on Population and Development, which contains a series of agreements to strengthen the implementation of population and development issues beyond 2014, at the end of the First session of the Regional Conference on Population and Development in Latin America and the Caribbean, which was held from 12 to 15 August 2013 in the capital of Uruguay.

The Common Market protocol aims to promote development through the facilitation of the free movement of goods, persons, labour, the rights of establishment and residence, the free movement of services and capital.

The Migration Dialogue for West Africa or MIDWA was designed as a platform to encourage the Member States of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to discuss, in a regional context, such common migration issues and concerns for which immediate solutions may not be forthcoming at a national level. Its objective is to promote and ensure high quality cooperation among ECOWAS Member States, third countries and other international consultative forums on Free Movement and migration by:

The Economic Community Of West African States (ECOWAS) is a regional group of fifteen countries, founded in 1975. Its mission is to promote economic integration in "all fields of economic activity, particularly industry, transport, telecommunications, energy, agriculture, natural resources, commerce, monetary and financial questions, social and cultural matters .....".

ECOWAS has introduced the ECOWAS Passport and APEC has put in place an APEC-visa for certain categories of people to facilitate their movement in these groupings' member States. 

The main objectives of Southern African Development Community (SADC) are to:

The Migration Information and Statistics System for Mesoamerica (SIEMMES by its Spanish acronym) is a system of migration information designed to capture and monitor the magnitude and characteristics of migratory movements from, to and between the Central American countries and Mexico, by coordinating and compatibilizing the data generated by different agencies in all those countries. 

Set up in 2001, it includes Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua and Panama.

The Mediterranean Transit Migration (MTM) Dialogue is an inter-regional inter-governmental consultative forum of a wide number of EU, African, and other governments in the Meditteranean region, as well as observer States, and Partner Agecies, which aims to build common understandings and to jointly develop evidence-based comprehensive and sustainable migration management systems.

The Inter-governmental Asia-Pacific Consultations on Refugees, Displaced Persons and Migrants (APC) is affiliation of Asia-Pacific governments, who seek regional co-operation on matters relating to population movements, including refugees, displaced persons and migrants. It aims to promote dialogue and explore opportunities for greater regional cooperation on these matters. 

The APC was established in 1996 and is made up of over 30 Member States from Asia and Oceania. 

Since its inception in 2002, the Bali Process on People Smuggling, Trafficking in Persons and Related Transnational Crime (Bali Process) has effectively raised regional awareness of the consequences of people smuggling, trafficking in persons and related transnational crime. It is a forum for policy dialogue, information sharing and practical cooperation to help the region address these challenges. The Bali Process, co-chaired by Indonesia and Australia, has more than 48 members, including the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the International Organization fo