Santiago, Chile, August 30, 2017 – The International Scalabrini Migration Network (SIMN) participates in the Latin American and Caribbean Regional Meeting of Experts on Migration, held at ECLAC headquarters in Santiago, Chile, on August 30 and 31, 2017.

The meeting is part of the preparatory process for the global compact and multi-stakeholder hearings relating to the global compact. It is hoped that a debate will emerge from a regional vision on the human rights of migrants, response to factors driving migration, international cooperation and governance, irregular migration and human trafficking, migrants’ contributions sustainable development and decent work. 

SIMN Executive Director, Fr. Leonir Chiarello, will address the issue of responding to factors driving migration (including the adverse effects of climate change, natural disasters and man-made crises) through protection and Assistance, sustainable development, poverty eradication and conflict prevention and resolution.

ECLAC, with the collaboration of IOM and the Population Division of DESA, will be responsible for ensuring that contributions from Member States are heard through the preparation of a summary document of the meeting and containing the results of three studies on the migration landscape in each of the subregions of Latin America and the Caribbean.

“We hope that the Global Compact will consider the political, normative and institutional elements necessary for a governance of migration that ensures the integral development of migrants in destination countries and solving the structural causes of forced migration in countries of origin,” says the Executive Director of SIMN.

About SIMN – SIMN is supporting more than 250 Scalabrinian centers, shelters and programs that are providing lodging, food, training and employment programs; psychological and religious services; protection to victims of human trafficking and support in the integration process to migrants, refugees and seafarers in five continents. In 2016, for example, Scalabrinian Centers has supported 120,738 migrants and refugees and 172,790 seafarers around the world. SIMN is also supporting a network of schools providing education, school supplies, and food, (possibly their only meal of the day) to thousands of needy children. In addition, SIMN is an accredited Non-Governmental Organization at the United Nations, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the Organization of American States (OAS) and from this perspective is providing research and support for regional and global policies to protect and promote the dignity and the rights of migrants and their families.