11 December 2003

Mamphela Ramphele, a managing director of the World Bank and former vice-chancellor of the University of Cape Town, has been appointed co-chair of an independent global commission on international migration, launched in Geneva this week with United Nations backing.

Jan Karlsson, a former migration minister from Sweden, will be the other co-chair of the Global Commission on International Migration, which will focus on new ways of managing migration flows and protecting migrants' rights.

The panel is expected to begin work next month and present its final report to UN Secretary-Genaral Kofi Annan in mid-2005. Annan called last month for a better institutional framework to handle migration at a global level.

Launching the new, non-UN panel in Geneva on Tuesday, Annan said migration provided enormous potential benefits to both "receiver" and "sender" countries, adding that the panel would help promote greater public understanding about an issue which has "generated more heat than light" in some countries.

About 175 million people - 3% of the world's population - live outside the country in which they were born, a figure that could rise to 230 million by 2050, according to estimates by the International Organisation for Migration.

And Financial Times writer Frances Williams notes: "Remittances to their home countries by migrant workers in rich nations - worth upwards of US$88-billion - now outweigh official development aid to those countries, buoying purchasing power and potentially providing significant resources for investment."

The commission, with an estimated budget of $4-million financed by donors, will consist of up to 15 "internationally renowned" members from all regions, Financial Times reports.

While the commission is an independent body, "we at the UN are ready to help it in any way we can, including through consultations and the provision of data and information", Annan said.

The UN secretary-general said migration was not just an economic but also a human rights issue, pointing out that migration is as old as humanity. The world's approach to migration, he said, would "be an important test of our commitment to universal values, and our capacity, as an international community, to cooperate for mutual advantage."

SouthAfrica.info reporter

	Mamphela Ramphele addresses graduates of Barnard College, an independent liberal arts college for women, in New York City in 2002 (Barnard College)

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