World leaders to discuss safe migration  

3-Day Int'l Migration Meet Begins In City Today
World leaders, private sector and other non-state partners gathered in Dhaka to join a three-day conference of Global Forum on Migration and Development (GFMD) to open a common space for discussing safe migration although the Rohingya issue would not be tabled for talks.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is expected to inaugurate the three-day conference at Bangabandhu International Conference Centre Today (Saturday) morning.
Although GFMD has a little contribution in addressing political and war migrant people but still the world leaders feel that GFMD is the best platform for global discourse, cooperation and partnership-building on migration and development, an initiative of the United Nations member states to address the migration and development inter-linkages.
Bangladesh, the Chair-in-Office in the 8th GFMD summit, set to organise the 9th summit under the overarching theme, "Migration that works for Sustainable Development of All: Towards a Transformative Migration Agenda."
Around 700 local and foreign delegates are expected to join the summit to discuss safe migration issues among the governments, international organisations, civil society, private sector and other non-state partners - for interaction between governments and global civil society and other stakeholders.
A panel discussion on the rights and welfare of migrants, challenges faced by women and children in the context of international migration, labour exploitation and the importance of the international normative human rights framework would also be discussed in the meeting, sources said.
Foreign Secretary Mohammad Shahidul Haque will chair all official meetings in its six sessions and will hand over the chair to his counterpart from Germany on December 12.
"Participants' of the member states will join efforts towards developing a transformative migration agenda while ensuring the achievement of migration-related goals and targets of the 2030 agenda for sustainable development which is the main focus of the 9th Summit," a senior official of the Foreign Ministry told the Daily Observer.
There is no way to discuss any bi-lateral issue in GFMD meeting, however, six to eight government-led roundtable sessions would be organised on the future of the forum, and special session on the platform for partnerships would discuss six specific topics, according to the Foreign Ministry.
These six RT sessions are focused on topics that evoke the increasing difficulties affecting migrants and the challenges to governments, other migration and development actors, namely, reducing the cost of migration, connectivity, migration, diversity and harmonious societies, protection of migrants in all situations, migrants in the time of crises and governance of migration.
Highlighting series of events that would take place round the year.
He assured that Bangladesh would place the issue of migration and development at its due place in the post-2015 Development Agenda.
"Bangladesh will try its best to uphold the trust bestowed upon the country by taking the forum to a new height during its chairmanship," said Foreign Secretary Mohammad Shahidul Haque.
Shahidul Haque said the upcoming GFMD debate will be structured on three sub-themes.
They are economics of migration and development, sociology of migration and development and government of migration and development.
To make the conference successful and to ensure safety and security of the foreign delegates, the
government has taken up extensive measures for
the next three days in the city.
A senior official of the Foreign Ministry said the Rohingya issue would be discussed on the sideline meetings but there is no way to discuss it at the official meetings as it is a bi-lateral issue.