Ambassador Swing made these observations in responding to the statement delivered by Sri Lanka's Permanent Representative to the UN in Geneva Ambassador Ravinatha Aryasinha during the General Debate of the 106th IOM Council, which concluded in Geneva last Friday.

In Sri Lanka's statement to the Council Ambassador Aryasinha had noted that the recently concluded 3rd Senior Officials Meeting of the Colombo Process (CP) had agreed to work on tangible actions on five thematic areas identified by the road map proposed by Sri Lanka - namely skills recognition, ethical labour recruitment, pre-departure orientation (PDO), safer, faster and cheaper transfer of remittances and to develop a resource base on labour market trends. He said the CP will also work on 'migration and health' related issues under PDO, and to actively participate in the process of developing the indicators for implementing the migration related SDGs. He added that the CP had also strengthened its operational modalities, agreed to introduce a self-funding mechanism which will ensure predictability to the CPs regular work and meetings, and had enhanced cooperation with other groups, including with the ADD, the EU through the Asia-EU Dialogue and the GFMD.