Rome: President of Republic Addresses International Conference on Migration and Development

Participating in the Conference held on 23 July in Rome on Migration and Development, His Excellency Mr. Mohamed Ould Cheikh El Ghazouani, the President of the Republic, delivered the following speech:

“Excellency Madam President of the Council of Ministers of Italy;

Excellencies Heads of State and Government;

Excellency Director General of the International Organization for Migration,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I would like, first of all, to warmly thank Ms. Giorgia Meloni, the President of the Council of Ministers of Italy, as well as all the stakeholders in this happy initiative which today offers us the opportunity to discuss mobility, the management of migratory flows, and their impact on development to put the question of migration into perspective in its links with development.

The challenges of the “migration and development” issue are global in scope because migration has a multifaceted impact on all countries, whether of origin, transit, or destination and regardless of their level of development.

Alongside regular migration, which positively impacts development in countries of origin and destination, there is illegal immigration, which often generates dramatic humanitarian situations linked to human trafficking and migrant smuggling in defiance of human life and dignity.

Mauritania, country of origin, transit, and destination, faces, like all other countries, the multiple challenges of migration.

It welcomes on its territory about one hundred thousand refugees among our Malian brothers, to which is added a large population of immigrants of various nationalities who exert considerable pressure on our country, essentially of an economic, security, and sociological order.

In addition, as a transit country Mauritania is facing a wave of illegal immigration to Europe via Spain.

It is trying to contain this wave by intensifying the surveillance and control of its borders and strengthening the police and coast guard services, both in terms of staff, equipment. This requires intensifying training for our security forces and working with our partners in this field.

But Mauritania is also experiencing a wave of emigration among its youth.

Faced with this phenomenon, it works to fight against unemployment, exclusion, and poverty through the establishment of significant social safety nets, the strengthening of adaptive social protection, and that programs to fight against poverty, revive economic growth, vocational training, and the employability of young people.

All these strategies and programs require significant financial resources. We are aware in Mauritania that the lasting solution to the problem imposed by migration requires collective responsibility.

Consequently, the appropriate response to this challenge, common to all governments, necessarily involves a common approach and the development of concerted and collectively implemented global solutions.

We need to implement relevant policies for development, the fight against poverty and strengthening the resilience of populations.

On its own, the security and flow control perspective cannot constitute a lasting solution to the complex problems linked to migration.

In fact, the challenge of migratory flows today reflects our delay in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.

It will therefore be necessary, as a matter of urgency, to take into consideration, in a spirit of active solidarity, the issue of climate change, poverty, and exclusion, paying particular attention to the cases of countries and regions facing critical economic, political, and security situations to support them in a better way.

The resolutions that will be taken in this context must be accompanied by an effective strategy for the rapid mobilization of the financial resources necessary for their implementation.

Thank you “.