The SRSG for Migration, Ms. Louise Arbour, participated on July 6th in an international conference on migration in Rome, featuring the foreign ministers of several  EU countries , international organizations and the main African countries of transit. The conference, chaired by the Italian Foreign Minister Angelino Alfano was based on a new integrated approach for managing population flows, based on solidarity and security. Following her address during the working lunch, the SRSG then held a number of bilateral meetings, among others, with the Italian Foreign Ministry’s Secretary General and the Director General for UN Affairs and Human Rights. Furthermore, Ms Arbour briefly met with Ms. Maria Grazia Giammarinaro, the Special Rapporteur on Human Trafficking.

Ms. Arbour also visited a migrant facility managed by the Italian Red Cross in the outskirts of Rome. There, she took part in a roundtable discussion on the challenges of migration, human mobility and Africa’s development in the XXI century. Ms. Arbour also gave an interview to Italy’s leading daily newspapaer, Corriere della Sera, in which she expressed her thoughts on the current developments of the migration crisis in the Mediterranean (link to the interview: http://roma.corriere.it/notizie/politica/17_luglio_08/inviata-onu-si-flu...).

Ms. Arbour stressed the priority to change the narrative and tell the public opinion the many positive outcomes that arise from migration.  The overall economic value of 240 million migrants worldwide is between three and four times larger than overall public Official Development Assistance. Similarly, migrants tend to send back approximately 15% of their incomes as remittances, helping both their host and home countries.