The UN Network on Migration is pleased to announce its listening session as part of a series of exchanges with stakeholders looking at how the COVID-19 pandemic is impacting migrants and how successful policies and practices can ensure that in overcoming the current global crisis no-one is left behind. Listening sessions offer a space primarily for civil society and other stakeholders to speak and exchange on their activities.
This listening session will focus on the impact of COVID-19 on the availability of regular pathways for the protection of migrants in situations of vulnerability, providing a space to share updates on emerging challenges, promising practices, and examples of ongoing collaboration among stakeholders in all regions.
Participants are invited to share their experiences on the ground relating to challenges faced by migrants in accessing pathways during the current crisis, as well as possible new avenues for and access to legal admission and stay, including through regularization schemes, and to point towards potential policy and/or operational challenges and opportunities in the promotion and use of such pathways in the wake of the pandemic. It is expected that these views will inform the drafting of a Network policy brief on "The Impact of COVID 19 on Regular Migration Pathways: Adapting to Migrants' Needs".
The session is being organized by the Network’s Working Group 3 on Strengthening States’ capacities to expand regular migration pathways, including admission and stay, and to address and reduce vulnerabilities faced by migrants, which is co-led by OHCHR, ACT Alliance and the Asia Pacific Refugee Rights Network (APRRN) in collaboration with the Network's Secretariat. The Working Group includes a variety of civil society organizations and other stakeholders.
The working language of this call will be English. However, colleagues of the Network secretariat would be able to translate brief questions or interventions made in French or Spanish into English on the call.