And in other news, the United Nations International Organization for Migration has banded together with the other UN Agencies in Belize to create a migration network. This network will seek to provide effective, timely, and coordinated support to the people and government of Belize. The network will focus on prioritizing the rights and well-being of migrants and the issues they face. The Head of the IOM Belize Office, Diana Locke, told us more today.
Diana Locke, Head of Office, IOM Belize
"Today we established the UN Migration Network, basically what that means is that the UN Agencies in Belize will be looking at all of its activities and those that are primarily involved in issues relating to migration will come together and we will actually try to identify our synergies in our various program where we will work together with government in those synergies even developing more program that will support migration."
"We're launching this, we're definitely going to have partners such as UNICEF and UNHCR, will be our key partners. We started this process a year ago when we had a joint workplace before the formation of the network where we identify our synergies and we work together. Right now the three of us are definitely the core, we've had other agencies, UNFPA and PAHO who indicated, UNDP, all indicated interest, some of us more active than others because of the nature of the work we do but it's open to, we would definitely love to encourage the media to play a role in it, you're out there, you see stories, you're reporting on migration issues. You're a key partner in all of this. Academia, the discussion needs to happen, we need to understand and so I think the more we can encourage those kinds of things, bringing people together to have those discussions, we're in a better position to address all the migration issues that the country is faced with."
