On October 19, Archbishop Bernardito Auza, Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the UN, gave an intervention during the Second Committee deliberations of the Seventy-third Session of the General Assembly on Agenda Item 22(b), dedicated to the theme of "Globalization and Interdependence: International migration and development.”
In his statement, Archbishop Auza said that the international community must go beyond the staggering and increasing numbers of migrants, refugees and asylum seekers and remember that they refer to unique persons who have the right to human dignity, safety and a decent standard of living. He described the push and pull factors of migration and said that any successful effort to address the migration crisis should begin with push factors, since very few people want to leave their families and communities of origin. He underlined how migration brings benefits and not just costs to host countries, like courage, skills, energy, aspirations, and most notably, hard workers. He praised the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration and the Global Compact on Refugees for affirming the international community’s shared responsibility to care for those most in need of solidarity and reiterated Pope Francis’ summary of shared responsibilities and authentic solidarity in the four verbs: welcome, protect, promote and integrate. He expressed his hope that the honest effort given to the Global Compacts will endure in line with these four actions.
The statement can be found here.