It shows that in 2024, An estimated 304 million people were migrants, or 3.7 percent of the world’s population.. Children accounted for 12 to 14 percent, or about 37 to 42 million.
Guterres told ambassadors that the report makes one truth unequivocally clear: “Migration is not a crisis. The crisis is the inability to manage it together.”
Politicized and dehumanized
The Global Compact emphasizes that no country can manage migration alone, especially when the international community faces challenges such as climate change, demographic changes or economic transformation.
Although “human mobility” is profoundly changing the world, “The global reaction has too often been driven by fear, division and rank opportunism.”said the Secretary General.
“On every continent, immigrants are being exploited to score political points, with devastating human consequences,” he said.
“They are being dehumanized in public discourse. And they are being denied the rights and dignity that belong to every member of the human family, despite the enormous contributions that migrants make to economies and societies.”
Safe routes decreasing
This is happening at a time when safe and regular pathways for migration (work schemes and family reunification, for example) are becoming even more restrictive, pushing people to turn to smugglers and undertake dangerous journeys.
More than 48,000 migrants have died or gone missing in transit since the adoption of the Pact, according to the report, published a day after the UN migration agency, IOM, said sea crossings such as the central Mediterranean remain among the deadliest routes.
“It is a moral scandal that thousands of men, women and children die or disappear every year because there is no safe alternative.”Guterres said.
Victims, not criminals
He insisted that migrants are not criminals, but victims. The real criminals are the “ruthless smuggling and trafficking networks” that “profit from desperation, exploit the absence of safe alternatives and prosper when cooperation fails” – and must be prosecuted and brought to justice.
Meanwhile, many countries have taken important steps since the adoption of the pact, including expanding regular routes, strengthening labor mobility initiatives, improving search and rescue at sea, and supporting safer returns and reintegration.
However, “progress is uneven – and far below what current realities demand.” Migration governance must be “rights-based, gender-responsive and child-sensitive,” she said. It must also respect national sovereignty and be based on human dignity.
An Indonesian migrant volunteers at an organization in Singapore that helps other migrant workers. (archive)
From progress to action
To be effective, countries must work collectively on two fronts, starting with expanding and simplifying clear pathways for regular migration.
The second – focused on the countries of origin – requires guaranteeing development cooperation that invests in education, skills and the creation of decent employment.
“We must now translate the vision into accelerated actions for safe, orderly and regular migration,” said the Secretary-General.
This includes boosting cooperation to save lives and strengthen communities, cracking down on smuggling and trafficking networks, ending child migrant detention, matching migrants’ skills with labor market needs, and “confronting toxic narratives with evidence, truth and humanity.”
A better ‘migration story’
The Secretary-General said the International Migration Review Forum in May should help galvanize countries towards decisive and measurable action.
He stressed that humane and cooperative migration governance is not only possible but essential for a stable, peaceful and prosperous world.
“Migration is a story as old as humanity: a story of courage, resilience and mutual benefits,” he said. “Our task is to ensure that this never becomes a story of death and despair.”
He concluded by urging countries to “make the Global Compact a reality, in every region, on every route, for every migrant.”