International Organization for Migration: more preparation needed to receive migrants

(Vatican Radio) The Director General of the International Organization for Migration is calling on governments to prepare their citizens for the arrival of migrants coming from zones suffering from conflict, economic hardship or climate change. Ambassador William Lacy Swing is in Rome for meetings with Italian authorities and to take part at the World Food Program in an interagency standing committee to address issues such as the Sahel, Somalia, Syria and some of the long-standing crises such as Libya and other areas.

Tracey McClure met Ambassador Swing on the sidelines of a Rome conference on migration. She asked him where the International Organization for Migration would like to see more progress on migration issues. She began by asking him how the IOM regards its partnership with the Holy See, whose Pontifical Council for Migrants and Itinerants has been heavily involved in advocacy on behalf of migrants and in humanitarian assistance.

Listen to Tracey McClure's interview with Ambassador Swing:

Ambassador Swing says “Relations (with the Holy See) are very good, excellent I would say. We were particularly honoured last year on our sixtieth anniversary to receive the Vatican in as a member state of IOM. That was for us a milestone we were very pleased with because we’ve worked closely with the Vatican for a number of years. I’ve been here several times to speak at seminars and colloquia, had a chance to meet the Holy Father on that occasion as I had met Pope John Paul II when I was ambassador to the Congo in 1980. But we’ve continued to develop the relationship in a number of projects worldwide where our interests are close in terms of helping people with food and health and helping to resolve problems of natural and human made disasters such as some of the ones we dealt with recently in Haiti. So there’s a good deal of cooperation there and I think more can be developed.”

Q: In what areas?

A: Well I think mostly in the humanitarian areas of health. We also work with a number of other organizations that are, have a relationship to the Church, the Sovereign Order of Malta for example in health projects in Africa and a number of other areas: food, dealing with poverty in general there’s a very close tie there.

Q: The issue of migration is of course especially urgent now with all of the wars, the conflicts that we’re seeing in Africa, also in the Middle East. How do you see those affecting the countries where the influx of migrants is coming in?

A: … I wish that I could say that the disasters would be simply a phenomenon of the moment that will go away but it appears to be a trend now in more and more natural disasters, human made disasters and then these slow …. disasters of climate change. The effect is clearly going to be larger scale population displacement and movement to other countries. My plea to governments and authorities everywhere is to try to prepare the population for these new groups that are arriving so that there is an acceptance of them and an effort to try and make them feel at home and to be integrated because otherwise I think you develop discrimination and xenophobic type reactions that can be very harmful and put people unnecessarily in danger. Whereas with a little proper preparation and policies, one can … actually these people are coming basically to make a contribution and that contribution can then be appreciated more if there’s been public information
and public education campaigns to alert them.

Q: Yet one of the biggest areas where a push is also needed is to try to resolve those conflicts and the reasons for migration to begin with…

A: Exactly. This is the big issue: how can you improve the conditions in countries where people feel they have to leave for political reasons as refugees under the 1951 convention or where there are simply no economic prospects and therefore they become economic migrants. So clearly that’s the other side, the supply side that we have to deal with. It’s unfortunate.