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The high-level North and Central American Task Force on Migration today issued important recommendations for filling key governance gaps and promoting better coordination of the often-disjointed response to migration in the region.
The recommendations stress regional responsibility sharing and outline specific ways to improve regional mechanisms, support development and protection strategies by involving civil society, and expanding labor and protection pathways for refugees and migrants.
Key recommendations of the Task Force include:
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A comprehensive, strategic, regional approach is urgently needed to address migration from Northern Central America. The Task Force calls for the creation of a new North and Central American Council on Migration with the full participation of migrant communities, civil society organizations, indigenous peoples, donors, financial institutions, and the private sector.
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Governments in Northern Central America must address the political, economic and institutional drivers of migration. There are no quick fixes to address the many causes of migration; fundamental political, institutional and economic change is necessary. Other governments in the region are strongly encouraged to support these efforts.
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The United States, Canada and Mexico must increase legal channels for Central Americans to migrate – through both labor migration and protection pathways. Central Americans are migrating through irregular means because there simply are not enough legal pathways to accommodate current migration flows in an orderly and predictable manner.
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All regional actors — from Central American governments to donors, international NGOs and financial institutions — must find ways to support the active engagement of civil society and indigenous communities to address the drivers of migration, support migrants and returnees, and advocate for substantive policy changes. Civil society actors, including faith-based organizations, are playing a valiant, humanitarian role in the region but are under threat and under-resourced while having to fill gaps by providing services that governments cannot or will not provide.
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