Mr. Chair,

Fellow delegates,

The Chinese delegation welcomes Director General’s briefing, appreciates DG and his team for their efforts in assisting member states to combat the Covid-19. Indeed, the pandemic has taken severe impact on cross-border human mobility, which in turn makes the curbing of spread of the pandemic more difficult. I’d like to make a few points:

Firstly, enhance international cooperation. The 75th anniversary of the UN offers a unique opportunity to firmly uphold the multilateral system with the UN at its core, and strengthen the leadership and coordination role of IOM in global migration affairs. Under the circumstance, we wish to see IOM more prepared for emergency response, and the international solidarity further reinforced. Since we are on the same boat, we should help developing countries, in particular the least developed countries, to cope with the epidemic in an effective manner, so as to resume work and production, and reduce passive and irregular migration.

Secondly, improve global migration governance. The Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration(GCM) needs to be implemented in line with the principle of state sovereignty and bearing in mind respective national conditions. IOM needs to intensify its efforts to help countries formulate migration policies based on national circumstances, provide policy guidance and practical support in this respect. In the meantime, regional and sub-regional consultation mechanisms should be strengthened, so as to reinforce the governance architecture at different levels, and make them more mutually complementary to each other.

Thirdly, address migration issues from development perspective. Countries of origin, transit and destination should strengthen coordination among them, prioritize measures of sanitation and prevention for cross-border personnel with a view to prevent further spread of the pandemic. Furthermore, measures need to be taken to facilitate immigrants’ participation in the process of the resumption of work and production, so as to unleash their potential to social-economic development, and mitigate negative impact of the pandemic.

Last but not least, special attention has to be paid to some of the phenomenon which runs counter to the global efforts to solve the migration issue, such as deflecting responsibilities, stigmatizing, spreading misinformation, neglecting or even encourage pandemic-related racial discrimination and crimes. We do hope these behaviors could be addressed effectively, so as to better protect the legitimate rights and interests of migrants and create a fair and favorable living environment for them.

Mr. Chair,

China has made tremendous efforts and managed to bring the pandemic under control. In the meantime, we launched large-scale emergency humanitarian operations, including dispatching medical experts teams to 34 countries and providing assistance to 150 countries. We introduced policies and measures for the convenience of foreigners’ stay in China. We made every effort to provide non-discriminatory medical observation and treatment for them all. And cross-border travel reminders were issued in a timely manner to reduce unnecessary and non-urgent travel, and importation risks incurred by illegal entry was effectively controlled and prevented.

China attaches great importance to international cooperation on migration-related issues, and maintains sound cooperation with IOM. Under the framework of the South-South Cooperation Assistance Fund, tripartite cooperation with IOM was undertaken for the benefit of migration projects in African countries. The EU-China Dialogue on Migration and Mobility Support Project delivered quite well.

In short, China is committed to further opening up, and to make more contribution to the safe, orderly and regular migration of people globally, and to the recovery of world economy.