PrintSecretariat for Inter-Governmental Consultations on asylum, refugee and migration policies—membership contribution
Objective
Support Australian policy objectives to promote managed migration, maintain an effective system of international protection, contribute to enhanced border security systems, and prevent illegal migration.
Description
During 2007–08, Australia contributed $123 001 towards the administrative costs of the Inter-Governmental Consultations (IGC).
The IGC is an informal, non-decision making forum for inter-governmental information exchange and policy debate on issues of relevance to the management of international migratory flows. It provides an opportunity for participating states to share best practice and to influence international standards and policies on a range of asylum, migration and refugee issues.
The IGC is currently comprised of 16 participating states in Western Europe, North America and Australasia. In addition to participating states, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the European Commission also contribute to the IGC.
Performance
The IGC continued to perform strongly by providing participating states with an informal framework for sharing information and developing perspectives on current migration and asylum issues which take into account the interests of individual participating states.
The IGC activities are informal, flexible and structured around three clusters of issues (admission, control and enforcement; asylum and refugees; and immigration and integration) and three cross-cutting activities (technology, data and country of origin information).
The IGC operates independently of the United Nations and is one of the few multilateral consultation mechanisms through which Australia can regularly and directly engage with many Western European states on domestic migration, border control and asylum issues. The perspectives developed through participation in the IGC assist in informing the department's regional and bilateral engagements as well as other multilateral engagements.
During 2007–08, Sweden chaired the IGC and facilitated a successful discussion of its theme of 'Circular Migration'. The Swedish agenda covered key issues such as defining the policy objectives of circular migration and exploring the possible barriers and facilitators to circular migration. Participating states were also given the opportunity to discuss their own experiences with circular migration and their state specific perspectives on circular migration.
At the full round in Stockholm in May 2008, participating states discussed future trends and labour migration. Participating states also discussed national preparations for the October 2008 Global Forum on Migration and Development (a follow up event to the first meeting of the first global forum which was held in July 2007). The full round was well attended and attracted high level representation.
Australia continued to chair the IGC Technology Working Group. Specific topics explored by the working group in 2007–08 included:
- privacy issues related to the implementation of a range of biometric solutions
- the use of technology to assist enforcement authorities in tackling illegal employment
- the role of operational support centres in managing 'back room' functions associated with the deployment of biometrics
- identity management as an integrated system of business processes, technologies and policy; the challenges in ensuring interoperability of different solutions; and optimising opportunities for data sharing
- the experiences of member states in deploying mobile biometric technologies
- best practices for procurement and rollout of technologies for visa and border processing, with a particular focus on biometric solutions
- how ePassports can be used to support automated border processing systems.
| Measures | Results |
|---|---|
| Quantity | |
| One payment is made annually | Achieved |
| Quality | |
| Australia's annual funding contribution is provided on time | Australia provided its annual funding contribution to the IGC in a timely manner and by the required date for payment |
