UN chief regrets US pullout from migration compact talks
Secretary-General Antonio Guterres expressed regret Monday that the United States is ending its participation in negotiations for a Global Compact on Migration aimed at strengthening governance of the movement of people across borders.
The U.S. Mission to the United Nations informed Guterres over the weekend that numerous provisions in the New York Declaration that launched the process for a compact “are inconsistent with U.S. immigration and refugee policies and the Trump administration’s immigration principles.”
In the declaration, all 193 U.N. member states — including the U.S. under President Barack Obama — said no one country can manage international migration on its own. They agreed to launch a process leading to the adoption of a global compact in 2018.
U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters Monday that the U.S. withdrawal is “a decision which we regret, but there’s still plenty of time for U.S. engagement on this issue.”