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First High-level Dialogue on international migration and development

New York

14 September 2006 to 15 September 2006

The first-ever plenary session of the UN General Assembly on migration issues opens 14 September at the United Nations in New York, with a focus on ways to maximize the development benefits of migration and to reduce difficulties.

“We are only beginning to learn how to make migration work more consistently for development,� Secretary-General Kofi Annan said in a report prepared in anticipation of the meeting. “Each of us holds a piece of the migration puzzle, but none has the whole picture. It is time to start putting it together.�

Conceived and scheduled more than two years ago by the General Assembly, the 14-15 September High-level Dialogue follows a period of intense public attention to the cross-border movement of people, and a quickening pace of multilateral talks on migration.

In addition to the plenary debate, the 14-15 September High-level Dialogue on International Migration and Development brings ministers and delegates together in informal round table discussions on themes such as remittances (i.e., monies sent home by workers abroad); smuggling of migrant and trafficking in persons; and partnerships at the bilateral and regional levels.