The UN’s migration agency should not get itself dragged into domestic policy debates, its chief Antonio Vitorino told AFP, as he seeks a second term leading the organisation.
“Migration has become a highly politicised area, and even a highly polarised area,” the 66-year-old former Portuguese deputy prime minister said.
“Some people would like us to be more vocal in some moments of the internal migration debate, but we do not take sides,” he said, noting how the topic is being fiercely debated in countries like Britain, France and the United States.
Vitorino is standing for re-election as director general of the United Nations’ International Organization for Migration.
The vote takes place in mid-May and Vitorino is in the unusual position of being challenged for the job by his American deputy Amy Pope.
The IOM was founded in 1951 to deal with the displacements in Europe following World War II.
But it was only in 2016 that it joined the United Nations fold,…
Source: Guardian Newspaper
