SIMN Attends XVI Migration Conference in Santiago, Chile

Santiago, August 11 – Under the theme of Migrants’ Human Rights and Migration Governance in Chile, the XVI Migratory Conference was held on August 7th and 8th, an initiative managed by the INCAMI and the SIMN through the Scalabrini Foundation. The event was sponsored by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Chile through its Directorate of Consular Policy, the Ministry of Interior and Public Security of Chile through the Department of Immigration and Migration, the Senate of the Republic, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

This type of meeting is key because it allows us to share experiences, thoughts, and especially to make proposals, based on dialogue, and debate and search for synergies between different stakeholders who are directly or indirectly related to migration. 

“We are convinced that migration should be analyzed from different points of view. Just being able to hear other players, both governments and civil society, makes such meetings very significant. To overcome what Pope Francis himself defined as ” the globalization of indifference,” we must work together, identifying the challenges currently facing migration and sharing the goals that each of us as organizations and institutions are moving ahead, to work together for the great common goal, which is to help each migrant who chooses this country to place his hope and develop as a human being, “said Idenilso Bortolotto, CEO Scalabrini Foundation.

During the XVI Conference, the meeting focused on the definition of a New Immigration Policy, which is one of the central challenges for the new government administration of President Michelle Bachelet.

“It was a very positive meeting, as it allowed us to begin to formulate a Political-Legal Document Migration, agreed to by key stakeholders from government and civil society committed to migrants. The document will be a basis to support the new policy, to ensure ethical governance of migration in Chile, based on the paradigm of recognition and protection of the dignity and rights of all people, including people migrants and their families,” said Leonir Chiarello, Executive Director of SIMN.