United Nations Pact on Migration: Signatory States "create expectations for those who wish to migrate"

eI fear a "threat to our national sovereignty". That is why Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz announced the withdrawal of the Global Compact for United Nations migration. "It is important for us not to contract international law for Austria, so we decided not to join the pact," said the political leader of the ÖVP on Wednesday in Vienna.

Prior to Austria, only the United States, Australia and the only European state of Hungary had announced that they would not adhere to the "Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration" that was Is held in Marrakech, Morocco on December 10th and 11th. should be signed.

However, in other countries, the debate is still ongoing. It is to be expected of other abandonment of the 32 – page draft agreement with which the United Nations agreed in principle in 2016.

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Recently, signals came from Copenhagen that Denmark could refuse to sign. Polish Interior Minister Joachim Brudzinski has also publicly called on Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki to withdraw from the deal, which could encourage "further illegal migration".

Similar debates exist in the Czech Republic. President Milos Zeman is considered a staunch opponent, while Prime Minister Andrej Babis, who stressed his opposition to "mbad migration" in the election campaign, has not yet taken the speech.

The document ensures, on the one hand, that content is not mandatory and that "the sovereign right of states to determine their own national migration policy" is recognized; Moreover, the words "commit" or "commitment" towards migrants, whose number is estimated at 250 million worldwide, are found 87 times.

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International lawyer Matthias Herdegen, based in Bonn, warns against the "gray area of ​​non-legal connection, but still gives the impression of responsibility". The signatory states "thus create expectations among those who wish to migrate" without relying on "reliable structures", according to the scientist who recently announced his candidacy for the presidency of the CDU at a interview with WELT.

Another opinion is the friend of the party Herdegens, the deputy of the CDU Bundestag, Christoph de Vries. He lamented that "Austrian Chancellor Kurz reacted" to the agreement under pressure from his right-wing populist coalition partner, de Vries WELT said, referring to the FPÖ. "Because it's about reducing illegal migration around the world and better managing legal migration."

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The politician of the development of the FDP Olaf in Beek criticized the withdrawal of Vienna from the agreement. However, in the Beek also said: "Who really wants to respect the right-wing slogans before immigration into social systems by a non-binding document under international law, does not do so with the refusal of the signature, but with a qualified immigration law with clear rules ".

The SPD and the Greens also welcome this agreement. For its part, warns Juergen Brown, director general of the AFD parliamentary group, according to which the pact would be "customary international law created in a roundabout way".

Special protection for refugees

The non-binding commitments contained in the document concern the guarantee of the universal human rights and fundamental freedoms of refugees and migrants. The preamble distinguishes between these two groups by stating that refugees are entitled to the specific protection of international refugee law.

The pact therefore refers to "migrants and provides a framework for cooperation on migration in all its dimensions". Migration has "always been part of the history of humanity" and "in our globalized world, a source of prosperity, innovation and sustainable development".

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He stressed that the Pact is based on the commitments that Member States "agreed in the New York Declaration on Refugees and Migrants". These commitments in New York include the provision of "additional humanitarian and development support". It would be necessary to create more possibilities for "refugees to be accepted or resettled by third countries".

The commitments made in the Global Compact on Migration include measures to prevent migration – in the sense of "eliminating the causes of flight". "We are committed to creating favorable political, economic and social conditions as well as environmental conditions conducive to the peaceful, productive and sustainable lives of people in their own country".

The signatory states want "to ensure that despair and deteriorating environmental conditions" do not "drive people in other states to find a livelihood through irregular migration elsewhere".

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National websites are designed to inform people who do not wish to stay in their home country of "regular migration opportunities" and "country-specific immigration laws". In addition, under point 24, "individual or joint search and rescue missions" are promised in order to "save human lives and avoid death and the violation of the rights of migrants".

Rome, for example, will he sign this pbadage? During the summer, Italy and Malta ended their informal cooperation with non-governmental organizations with the aim of rescuing wrecked migrants in the Mediterranean. The two EU states also refuse to accept boat people aboard ships of the European mission "Sophia".

Enable legal migration

The signatory states also pledged to intensify "their joint efforts to prevent and combat the smuggling of migrants". It was to "facilitate the safe and regular crossing of borders while preventing irregular migration".

There should be only "deprivation of liberty among migrants" as a "last resort". It is then committed to giving victims "access to free, affordable, qualified and independent legal advice and badistance".

All migrants should benefit from "secure access to basic services" irrespective of their migratory status, especially social benefits. "Mutual respect" should be promoted for the "culture, traditions and customs" of destination countries and migrants.

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view Tibi, expert in Islam

The signatories commit to "eliminate all forms of discrimination" in the target company. There is talk repeatedly of "intolerance towards migrants", which must be fought. The agreement does not mention the possible intolerance of individual groups of migrants, for example against certain religions, badual minorities or the idea of ​​gender equality.

Whatever the case may be, the migration issues will be hidden. He was a "supporter of migration," said political scientist Bbadam Tibi, from Syria in Göttingen, in conversation with WELT. "But it must be legal and manageable." The state that receives the migrants must have the right to accept them according to their own needs and criteria.

The problem with the global compact is that the commitments are not binding. On the other hand, states should regularly submit written reports on their migration policies "and, if they do not include certain groups of migrants, it is to be expected that that non-governmental organizations accuse governments of racism and violations of the pact ".