OSCE migration conference ends

The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) has concluded an international seminar on the economic and environmental aspects of migration in the Kazakh commercial capital of Almaty. "Migration has been chosen by the chairmanship as one of their priorities," Marc Baltes, deputy coordinator for the OSCE's economic and environmental activities, told IRIN from Almaty, emphasising the seminar's environmental and economic perspective. Jointly arranged by the Slovenian chairmanship and the Office of the Coordinator of OSCE Economic and Environmental Activities, with support from the OSCE centre in Almaty, the seminar looked at how the organisations's 55 participating states and other international actors could better manage migration in a regional context. According to the Vienna-based OSCE - the largest regional security organisation in the world with participating states from Europe, Central Asia and North America - migration has continued to affect political developments and international relations in the OSCE area over the past few decades due to a strong increase in international migrants. Such issues are particularly relevant in Central Asia, where a growing number of people migrate on a temporary or permanent basis, seeking better economic opportunities, trying to escape poverty or the consequences of environmental problems such as drought, soil degradation or desertification. Upwards of 600,000 labour migrants a year go abroad in search of work from Tajikistan alone, experts maintain. As part of the two-day event, more than 200 representatives from OSCE states, international organisations, NGOs and academics, discussed environmentally induced migration, the impact of migration on economies, remittances, gender and the integration of migrants. Largely a preparatory session for the OSCE's annual economic forum to be held in Prague in May, the seminar served to stimulate dialogue among participants on policy issues regarding migration and how those issues could be better addressed in the future, Baltes explained. "People are not supposed to speak here on behalf of their delegations. It's more like brain storming," he explained, noting once recommendations were made, formal discussions by the delegations could be held in Prague. The Almaty seminar is the second preparatory session before the Prague meeting, with the first one dealing with demographic issues occurring in Trieste, Italy, at the end of 2004. An additional meeting is slated for Kiev, Ukraine, at the end of March. "There we will discuss the issues of integrating national minorities," Baltes said. Specific recommendations from the three seminars will beinstrumental in shaping the agenda for the Prague forum. Speaking on the first day of the conference, Rapil Zhoshybaev, Kazakhstan's Deputy Foreign Minister said not only economic causes but also environmental issues were problems for migration. "People also leave locations where the soil has become exhausted, leading to desertification," he said in his opening speech, citing the Aral Sea and his country's Semipalatinsk nuclear polygon as examples. Echoing that view, Baltes remarked that soil degradation and the loss of people's livelihoods, had left thousands of people with no alternative but to migrate. "You can have similar examples also with regard to hazardous or even nuclear waste disposals in a number of Central Asian countries. While environmental migration is not always very well-known, it is definitely also a problem for security and internal stability for some countries," the OSCE official explained. Very often minority groups live in affected areas, Baltes said, adding: "You can imagine the resettlement policies are not always at the level you would expect them to be." According to the Kazinform news agency, the Centre of Support to Ecological Migrants from Uzbekistan, a local NGO based in Kazakhstan, maintains that more than 300,000 migrants, mainly ethnic Kazakhs, have moved to Kazakhstan from the Uzbek part of the Aral Sea region over the last 10 years. It is estimated that at least another 200,000 ecological migrants will follow them in the coming five years.