Governments of origin, transit and destination must all do more to ensure fairer treatment of migrant workers around the world by implementing the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), according to activists in the field.
The SDG programme, they say, is a worthy vehicle to steer the world toward more democratic and peaceful societies where populations have access to decent work opportunities, public education, healthcare and social services, as well as gender-sensitive social protection systems.
The message was delivered and discussed last week in Dhaka at the Global Forum on Migration and Development (GFMD), held together with People's Global Action on Migration (PGA), a gathering of civil society groups. For state agencies, the message was that they needed to protect migrant workers' rights and facilitate safe, orderly and regular migration.
The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, as outlined by the United Nations, makes clear that all 17 of the SDGs pertain to migrants, regardless of status, said Ellene A Sana, executive director of the Center for Migrant Advocacy in the Philippines.
Jillian Roque of Public Services International, said that the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), of which her organisation was a member, supported UN discussions on global governance of migration and that the GFMD could help push the mission forward.
"Migrants have contributed to our societies socially, culturally and economically and this is well-supported by anecdotal, empirical and statistical data," she said.
The PGA outlined a number of concerns that need to be addressed. They include xenophobia and racism; borders and detention; labour migration and recruitment reform; gender and migration; climate change and migration; and the growing phenomenon of mixed migration, defined as groups that include refugees, asylum seekers and economic migrants.
Civil society organisations have suggested scorecards or checklists for rights-based governance of migration in communities, at the national level and across the borders. Details of how such assessments can be expedited have not yet been concluded.
"Governments, individually and collectively, have failed to accept that voluntary migration is part of human nature and have failed to deal with the root causes of involuntary migration. The most effective way to stop successive waves of people fleeing for their lives is not by making it difficult to leave or to survive, but to eliminate the causes of their flight," the PGA said in a statement outlining its recommendations.
Monami Maulik of the Global Coalition on Migration said activists should follow up how their own countries and regions are responding to the Global Compacts, developed by the UN to address large movements of refugees and migrants.
Riaz Hamidullah, the Bangladeshi ambassador to Sri Lanka and chair of the GFMD taskforce, partially agreed with Ms Maulik that non-government organisations should work closely with their local counterparts to prepare for and also follow up on UN meetings on the issue in New York and Geneva.
"You should understand that ambassadors in the two UN capitals have to deal with a variety of issues," said Mr Hamidullah, adding that joint homework was needed.
The PGA noted that the major problem remained the issue of implementation; authorities have yet to adhere to all the principles, rules and regulations made at national levels or agreed on at the international level.
An equal and genuinely collaborative partnership is needed to strengthen the governance of migration, the PGA said. Those involved should include the International Organization of Migration, the Office of High Commission on Human Rights (UNHCR), the UN Refugee Agency, and the International Labour Organization (ILO). An agreement signed in July this year between the ILO and the UNHCR could provide a template for such collaboration, it added.
Forum participants acknowledged a wave of concerns emerging since the election of Donald Trump as the US president and the surge of right-wing movements in Europe.
In discussions of border control and detention, some said a number of people in the United States were demanding the abolition of detention while other activists in Asia acknowledged that detention remained a realistic approach for immigration authorities seeking to curb undesirable consequences.
Eduardo Canales, director of the South Texas Human Rights Center, said that fewer than 150 kilometres from the Mexican border, hundreds of people have gone missing in the past few years.
Only 56 bodies were recovered, said Mr Canales, adding that unrecovered bodies were believed to be inside private ranches to which access for NGOs was difficult, while in Arizona part of the border was on state property.
"Two million people were already deported under the Obama administration -- more so than under previous governments. Now that Trump will inherit the bad legacy -- 900,000 students ranging from 17 to 30 years are undocumented and their status is insecure now. It's really a bleak future and I'm afraid people will strike back at some point," said Mr Canales, who also chairs the National Network for Immigrants and Refugees Rights.
A Guatemalan father of a slain migrant emotionally told the forum that he wanted justice for his son and would not want others to face the same fate.
Bernard Duhaime, UN expert on involuntary disappearance, said detentions needed to be more transparent to prevent and resolve enforced disappearances.