Director General/Executive Director
Distinguished participants,
Ladies and gentlemen,
It is a pleasure to be here to open this meeting on the IOM-UNODC Joint Platform to Counter Migrant Smuggling.
People on the move are particularly vulnerable to abuse and exploitation at the hands of criminals, and migrant smuggling is putting the well-being, safety and lives of many migrants at risk.
It is also complicating countries' efforts to manage complex migratory flows around the world.
This new joint initiative between UNODC and IOM aims to pool and leverage the considerable expertise and experience of both our organizations, to ensure coordination and complementarity of efforts.
This initiative is also particularly timely in view of the continuing negotiations on the global compact for safe, orderly and regular migration.
As the guardian of the UN Convention against Transnational Organized Crime and its Protocol on migrant smuggling, UNODC has a clear mandate to support Member States to prevent and combat this crime, and protect smuggled migrants.
In line with the Protocol, UNODC is supporting States to improve criminal justice responses in order to detect and dismantle migrant smuggling networks.
Migrant smuggling by sea routes has claimed thousands of lives across the world.
In response, UNODC has devised a strategy and brought together practitioners and experts to address the urgent situation in the Mediterranean.
We are also helping to strengthen responses in the Caribbean and the Indian Ocean.
In order to stop migrant smuggling by air, we have supported States in West and Southern Africa to better control travel documents and visas.
Following the money is key to dismantling crime networks, and our expert groups meetings in South Eastern Europe have focused on cross-border cooperation as well as financial investigations and prosecutions, with the aim of disrupting illicit financial flows derived from migrant smuggling.
At the same time, UNODC is working with the West Africa Network of Prosecutors and Central Authorities, with plans to include prosecution authorities in North Africa and reinforce inter-regional cooperation with European counterparts.
In East Africa, we have partnered with the Interpol Regional Bureau and country experts to strengthen regional responses.
UNODC has also assisted with legislation in Niger and the Maldives, and launched a campaign to prevent and combat the deadly business of migrant smuggling in Mexico and other countries.
Just last year, we launched a global case law database with migrant smuggling cases. It has more than seven hundred cases from thirty-nine jurisdictions, and we are supporting training and research using this resource.
Now we need to advance these efforts further still.
In order to shed light on trends, routes and the modus operandi of criminal networks, UNODC will soon be publishing the first global UNODC Study on the Smuggling of Migrants.
UNODC is also committed to expanding our work and exploring ways of bringing UN agencies together, including to ensure that criminal justice responses to migrant smuggling are part of holistic, multidisciplinary approaches.
We are working through existing inter-agency mechanisms including the Global Migration Group, of which UNODC is an active member.
UNODC's long-standing partnership with IOM, including through our 2012 Memorandum of Understanding, is a strong example of our efforts to promote cooperative, comprehensive and innovative approaches.
Our offices are collaborating on a number of projects, including the Better Migration Management Initiative and the Global Action to Prevent and Address Trafficking in Persons and the Smuggling of Migrants.
Now our cooperation can be further enriched through the IOM-UNODC Joint Platform.
The Joint Platform can enhance our support to governments by better coordinating our technical assistance and research activities; linking up various stakeholders, including academia, to ensure evidence-based policy-making; and helping to develop further joint projects to counter migrant smuggling, as well as protect and assist smuggled migrants.
Ladies and gentlemen,
We must work together to deny criminals the means and opportunity, to protect the lives and safety of people, and end the impunity of smugglers.
UNODC is committed to our partnership with IOM and to this joint initiative.
I urge Member States to support our efforts and help ensure the necessary resources to take this initiative forward.
I would also like to thank the Government of Turkey for supporting today's consultative meeting.
I wish you a productive meeting and look forward to the outcome of your deliberations.
Thank you.