The first ladies from different countries in Latin America and the Caribbean will participate this week in the II International Conference on Migration in which they will address the migration phenomenon and the practices implemented by their nations.
The meeting, scheduled for September 1 and 2, was called by the Government of Honduras, a country that in 2014 also hosted the first meeting on the subject, the Presidential House indicated this Sunday in a statement.
The expansion of the coronavirus pandemic made it necessary to hold the meeting in a virtual way, the objective of which is to discuss the socioeconomic recovery and the migration approach within the framework of the disease.
Honduras, as a member country of the Alliance of Spouses of Heads of State and Representatives (ALMA), has been in charge of organizing the meeting and the Honduran first lady, Ana García, will be the host, said the vice chancellor of the Central American country, Nelly Jerez.
Present at the meeting will be the Argentine Fabiola Yáñez, the Belizean Kim Simplis Barrow, the Brazilian Michelle Bolsonaro, the Colombian María Juliana Ruiz, the Ecuadorian Rocío González, the Panamanian Yazmín Colón and the Paraguayan Silvana López-Moreira.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Brazil, Ernesto Henrique Fraga, and the head of the National System for the Integral Development of the Family, María del Rocío García Pérez, will also participate, representing the first lady of Mexico, Beatriz Gutiérrez, he added.
In addition, the director of the Population Division of the Latin American and Caribbean Demographic Center of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), Paulo Saad.
The Honduran Vice Foreign Minister indicated that the first ladies will present on the management of regular and irregular migration in their countries, initiatives, alliances and success stories during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The first ladies will also address the practices implemented in their countries regarding migration during the health emergency in order to « establish protection mechanisms for returned migrants and migrants in transit within the framework of the new reality, » he added.
During the II International Conference, whose motto is « New Remains, New Hopes », a panel on Migration and Economic Recovery will also be held in which ministers and vice ministers of Foreign Affairs of the region will participate.
The Honduran Migrant Attention Task Force and representatives of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), will speak at the panel « COVID-19: Migratory Context ». (https://www.explica.co/latin-american-first-ladies-will-debate-irregular-migration/)
