Since last November, 10,171 migrants have safely returned from Libya, the United Nations migration agency announced Tuesday, crediting the achievement to a scale up of its Voluntary Humanitarian Return (VHR) programme.
Although migrant apprehensions at the US-Mexican border decreased in 2017, the number of people who died while making the crossing remained high, the UN Migration Agency (IOM) reports.
The rights, protection and wellbeing of uprooted children should be central commitments of global migration policies, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) said on Thursday, as it released a new report prior to a meeting next week on safe, regular and orderly migration.
The United Nations refugee agency has welcomed the decision by the Libyan authorities to set up a “transit and departure facility” in Tripoli for refugees and migrants in need of international protection – an initiative that offers viable alternatives to their dangerous journeys along the Central Mediterranean route.
Briefing the Security Council Tuesday, top United Nations officials, including the Secretary-General and the head of the Organization’s anti-crime office, underscored the international community’s collective responsibility to stop criminals and terrorists from preying on vulnerable populations and migrants.
Although the debate on migration has largely focused on Europe, the global compact being negotiated must be adapted to the realities and peculiarities of each region, including Africa, where more than half of migrants moved to other countries on the continent, a senior United Nations official said Thursday.
Over the past 15 months, more than 2,000 migrants who have voluntarily returned home from Greece have successfully reintegrated back into their countries of origin, according to the United Nations migration agency.
United Nations Member States began Thursday in Geneva the sixth thematic session of discussions on the proposed Global Compact on Migration, during which delegates and experts will examine the issue of labour mobility of migrants.
![Maria [name changed], 16 (on right), from Honduras travels north with her younger siblings, expecting to cross the border near Tultitlan, Mexico, to the United States, to reunite with her family.](https://global.unitednations.entermediadb.net/assets/mediadb/services/module/asset/downloads/preset/assets/2017/11/28514/image350x235cropped.jpg "Maria [name changed], 16 (on right), from Honduras travels north with her younger siblings, expecting to cross the border near Tultitlan, Mexico, to the United States, to reunite with her family.")
