BAKU, Azerbaijan, April 24. The International Organization for Migration (IOM) welcomed the expected adoption of the Baku Declaration during the third Ministerial Conference of the Almaty Process, underlining its importance for advancing regional cooperation on migration, Trend reports.
Speaking at the event, Arthur Erken, IOM's Regional Director for Europe and Central Asia, emphasized that the declaration will contribute to “facilitating regional cooperation and ensuring safe, orderly, and regular migration.” He noted its alignment with both the Global Compact on Migration and IOM’s strategic plan, which emphasize partnership and coordinated responses to current migration dynamics.
Erken pointed to the Almaty Process as a valuable platform for its member and observer states, offering “a unique chance to hold both formal and informal exchanges in a region where migration is increasingly relevant and will remain so in the foreseeable future.”
Highlighting regional migration figures, Erken stated that Almaty Process member states have around 8 million citizens abroad, while hosting 9.5 million international migrants. The broader group of members, observers, and invited countries collectively host nearly 25 million international migrants and have approximately 22 million of their own citizens abroad.
He also acknowledged the rise in labor mobility across the region. “We are very pleased to see and to observe a growing number of labor-related mobility agreements among the countries in this region,” he said, adding that citizens of the Eurasian Economic Union already benefit from free movement for work.
Central Asian countries have also established bilateral labor migration agreements with several European countries, as well as Türkiye and South Korea, he noted. “Through the UK seasonal workers scheme that we are supporting with a number of your countries in this region, Central Asian migrant workers are increasingly filling gaps in the UK agricultural sector,” Erken said.