The Council of Ministers decided that Bulgaria will refrain from joining the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration. Our country will not be involved with its officials in the Intergovernmental Conference on the adoption of the Pact, which will be held in Marrakesh, Morocco, on 10 and 11 December.
The government also decided upon a subsequent vote on a resolution in the UN General Assembly on the approval of the already adopted GCM, the Permanent Representative of the Republic of Bulgaria to the UN to abstain. The topic of more effective management of migration processes is essential for the Republic of Bulgaria. At this stage, the Bulgarian Government considers that the decision to non-accession to the GCM fully protects the interests of the country and its citizens.
The decision does not change existing obligations in regard to international human rights, as well as the exercise of enhanced control at national borders.
The United States, Poland, Austria and Hungary have already announced in advance that they will not support the GCM. The Czech Republic and Slovakia also have objections. The text of the document could face many unexpected problems, including the definition that “migration is a positive global phenomenon”.
The critics of the text indicate that the document should not have a legal binding, but a symbolic nature. However, the wording in it states that “the parties are obliged” to adopt, provide and guarantee different activities. For them, there are economical disadvantages: the logic that the host countries gain extra workforce and the countries of origin of migrants – from remittances, are far less than the scenario where qualified employees remain in their homeland, rather to send money from their new host countries.
A study conducted by the German Federal Bank in January 2018 found that even only the eastern Europeans that migrated to Germany have played a major role in recent years in the stagnation of wages and on the negative development of unemployment, leading to radicalisation of certain environments.
According to a new survey of Gallup, 14 percent of the population worldwide wants to live in another country, making about 710 million people.
