UN envoy calls for an end to north-south blame-game

Peter Sutherland, the special representative for a major UN conference on migration and development, has warned against the debate turning into "finger-pointing" between rich and developing countries on illegal immigration.

Ministers from more than 190 countries will attend the UN high-level dialogue today and tomorrow (14-15 September) to discuss the need to co-ordinate policies on migration at national and regional levels. Population flows, the brain-drain of skilled workers leaving poorer countries to go to rich countries and the conditions of migrant workers are among the issues on which delegates will focus.

"It should serve as an opportunity for people to explain what they are doing in a constructive way rather than finger-pointing," said Sutherland, who was appointed by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan earlier this year to prepare the groundwork for the meeting through discussions with governments around the world.

Sutherland, a former European commissioner, said that he hoped the meeting would not focus on a north-south blame-game over illegal immigration with "the north saying ‘it’s your responsibility that they’re coming up’ and the south saying ‘it’s your responsibility because you’re not allowing proper development of our economies’. That’s not going to get us anywhere."

The European Commission and EU member states will participate in the dialogue and are expected to focus on the situation in Spain’s Canary Islands, Italy and Malta, where thousands of immigrants have arrived from Africa in recent months. Development Commissioner Louis Michel hopes to hold bilateral discussions with west African states from which much of the immigration stems. A meeting is scheduled between Michel, Franco Frattini, the commissioner for justice, freedom and security, and four other relevant commissioners on Tuesday (19 September) to come up with proposals before an informal gathering of EU justice ministers at the end of next week.

But there is little optimism from the EU that the UN high-level dialogue will yield results given the vastly different ways in which migration is viewed by different countries. The EU and its member states will want to discuss development, security, border controls, human rights, legal migration and integration but developing countries often limit talks to economic issues, according to European diplomats.

The International Committee of the Red Cross and Red Crescent (IFRC) also believes compromise will be difficult. "We do not expect an easy dialogue because of the difference between developing and developed countries in how they see the problem," said Encho Gospodinov, head of the IFRC delegation in New York.

On the crisis facing Spain, Sutherland believes an EU-wide response is needed involving the countries where the migrants come from. On the other hand EU labour markets which attract skilled labour from developing countries must also take responsibility for this process. "If there are more doctors from Mali practising in the UK than in Mali and you have a limited education system there, there is an obligation from a development policy [point of view] to recognise this carries some responsibility," said Sutherland.

Responsibility also lay with politicians to explain to their populations the need for immigration because of the falling birth rate, Sutherland said. But migration did not come without side-effects, he added. "There’s no point in having rose-tinted glasses and saying that doesn’t create issues. Of course it does so you can’t realistically have an absolute open-door policy and have no warts and no difficulties. It does have difficulties so it’s a question of balance and information."

There is no expectation of a resolution of the dialogue before heads of state meet for the UN general assembly on Tuesday. Among the issues world leaders attending the general assembly will debate is a strategy on counter terrorism.

Peter Sutherland, the special representative for a major UN conference on migration and development, has warned against the debate turning into "finger-pointing" between rich and developing countries on illegal immigration.