UN seminar to examine social implications of migration

Several United Nations and outside agencies will conduct a seminar in Bangkok later this month to review trends in migration, with a view toward exploring the social implications of these developments in the Asia-Pacific Region.

The forum, scheduled to take place in Bangkok on 24 August to 26 August, will focus on labour migration policies and programmes, migration and health, and the trafficking and smuggling of migrants, the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) said in a statement today.

It said the organizers expect the seminar, to help participants adjust their national policies so as to make them consistent with other development goals.

The seminar is being organized jointly by ESCAP, the UN Population Fund, the inter-governmental International Organization for Migration (IOM), and the Asian Forum of Parliamentarians on Population and Development.

“Because of the increasing magnitude of international migration in the ESCAP region, it is important that national governments incorporate it into their economic and social development strategies and take account of migration when preparing population and labour force projections,” ESCAP Executive Secretary Kim Hak-Su said.