IOM Director General visit to Chile

In September this year, IOM Director General, Ambassador William Lacy Swing, met with the President of Chile, Michelle Bachelet, and congratulated her on her intention to accept Syrian refugees in the country. The meeting was part of an official visit to open the 15th South American Conference on Migration (CSM), the main regional fora for non-binding government consultation and dialogue on migration. This year, Chile is the CSM pro tempore chair. Government, the civilian society, and international organizations’ representatives participated in the meeting, which is part of the CRM or Proceso Puebla, created in 1996 to coordinate and implement initiatives and programs to promote and develop international migration policies, as well as regional development and integration in the Americas. In his opening speech, Ambassador Swing invited the public to reflect on the world migration events, and he highlighted “The priority is to save lives, and high-scale human mobility in the coming decades is unavoidable, necessary, and desirable”. Swing stated, “We must not forget migrants’ important contribution to the economic, social, and cultural development in their countries of origin and destination”. The Ambassador also stressed the necessity that migrants be the focus point in migration and development agendas at domestic and world level. It was an honor for MundoChile to support this important visit by providing a personal interpreter for Ambassador Swing, attending all meetings with him. Besides, MundoChile provided simultaneous interpretation services for conferences and seminar held during this visit.