OBJECTIVES

• Bringing together migration officials and health experts from across the Americas to update and share their knowledge, recent experiences and lessons learned related to migration and health in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic. This will help all participating countries and organizations to improve and strengthen their responses to the ongoing pandemic and preparedness for future health emergencies.
• Sharing presentations and best practices and prompting an open discussion on the pandemic's evolution across the region, planning and preparedness, lessons learned from international flows on health measures, interventions for migrant persons and refugees, and strategic considerations for framing future migration health policies and measures.
• Making available to all participants the event presentations and a final report, to share knowledge of policies and programs in place, as well as conclusions and findings resulting from the event.

General objective

To present and discuss on the proposal of the Regional Strategy to Address Irregular and Mass Migration, to respond to the need of managing these flows within the region since this requires to be addressed urgently and comprehensively under the principles of shared responsibility, respect for human rights, national sovereignty, and international cooperation. It is worth mentioning that the Strategy has been developed based on the considerations expressed by the Member Countries during the First Meeting that took place in April, as well as the exchange of ideas that has taken place in the other activities organized by this Working Group.

Specific objectives

• To generate a space for constant dialogue and exchange that allows the consolidation of a fluid and effective communication between the Member Countries, regarding the assistance and protection of irregular and mass migration flows.
• To present and analyze the main topics that constitute the Regional Strategy for the assistance to and the protection of migrants in irregular and mass migration in the region.

General objective

Present the Regional Study: Programmes and processes of migratory regularization with the purpose of building an overview of the programmes and processes of migratory regularization that exist in the Member Countries of the RCM, with an emphasis on Mexico, Central America and the Dominican Republic, as well as the efforts in the region for the integration of migrants.

Specific objectives

• Identify the progress and challenges in the implementation of regularization programmes and processes in the region, as well as the integration of migrants.
• Analyze regional progress on migration regularization in the international legal context. • Generate spaces for dialogue on the state of implementation, good practices, and lessons learned regarding the regularization and integration programmes of migrants in the region from the perspective of government actors.

OBJECTIVES

• To define a functional and practicable route of action in the short and medium term to facilitate technical and infrastructural exchange aimed at border management and migration control, in order to strengthen the institutional capacities of migration governance of the RCM countries that are of transit and destination of intra-regional and extra-regional migrants.
• To explore ways to strengthen the agile, safe and orderly assisted return schemes of those nationals of the RCM Member Countries whose cases do not apply for migration regularization or any figure of international protection.
• To discuss strategies to strengthen the international protection systems in transit and destination countries, in order to broaden their response capacities to requests for recognition of refugee status or other international protection schemes.

Member Countries requested IOM and ECLAC to organize a virtual workshop on the review of the GCM, including the following elements:

i. The role of the Global Compact in supporting the work of the RCM.
ii. The support of the United Nations Network on Migration for the strengthening of the RCM.

In addition, the webinar will also discuss how the RCM can contribute to the upcoming International Migration Review Forum (IMRF). In this regard, this workshop is the first of two dialogues, with the second one being proposed for the first quarter of 2022. The objective of both sessions is to produce a contribution by the RCM to the IMRF.

The Regional Conference on Migration (RCM) and the South American Conference on Migration (SACM) held in virtual format their II Plenary Meeting on September 9 and 10, 2021, with the participation of representatives of the 23 Member States of both regional forums on international migration.

You can download the documents of the meeting here.

General Objective:

Strengthen the capacities of public actors at the local level in the Member Countries of RCM regarding the design, implementation, and evaluation of public migratory policy in order to improve migration governance.

Specific Objectives:

1. Identify the needs and priorities of local governments with respect to migration governance and its role in the implementation of global agreements.
2. Analyze the benefits of integrating local actors in migration governance processes.
3. Disseminate and promote the use of data generation tools and evidence on migration for the design, monitoring, and evaluation of migration policies.
4. Share best practices and lessons learned from specific locations, both in RCM Member Countries and outside the RCM, which have had successful experiences in the development of migration governance at the local level.

Objective:

The objective of this study is to identify the main means for regularization in the region, as well as their implementation state, good practices and challenges. The study aims to create recommendations for developing or strengthening the existing regularization programmes and processes in the region.

Objectives:

• Strengthen the capacities of civil officials in the RCM Member Countries with regards to the application of the principles of non-discrimination and equality, with special emphasis on the identification and assistance to people with special protection needs in the context of migration, for continuous improvement in the assistance to populations in the context of migration.
• Disseminate the legal framework that governs the use of force as a last and exceptional alternative for public officials in protection tasks for the population in the context of migration. Also, to raise awareness about the importance of protecting the access and full exercise of the rights of people in the context of migration, as part of the responsibilities of the front-line personnel of RCM Member Countries.
• Promote in the RCM Member Countries the strengthening of assisted, safe, and orderly return mechanisms, as well as training in the matter; provide information on good practices, especially in crisis situations, in which unrestricted respect for the human rights of people in migration contexts is sought.

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Objective:

The Programs objective is to promote in the member countries of the RCM, the training of the first line personnel in migrants` protection and assistance to identify vulnerability situations linked to violence, exploitation, and abuse, as well as the implementation of best practices for the identification of profiles and reference mechanisms regarding vulnerable migrant populations through the review of tools such as the IOM Determinants of Migrant Vulnerability Model4 and the Regional Guidelines for the preliminary identification of profiles and referral mechanisms for migrant populations in vulnerable situations.