Switzerland is joining a growing number of Countries that will refrain from signing a UN migration pact in December, the Government said on Wednesday.

The government said it “wishes to postpone its final decision pending conclusion of the parliamentary debates.’’

This failure to secure domestic support for the pact, which is meant to regulate global migration, is notable because Switzerland’s UN envoy Juerg Lauber was one of the two chief negotiators of the agreement.

UN member countries are scheduled to gather in the Moroccan city of Marrakesh on Dec. 10 and 11 to sign the “Global Compact for Migration.’’

Swiss opponents of the pact feared that its non-binding political goals could be interpreted as legal obligations in the long run.

They included the nationalist People’s Party, the country’s largest political movement, as well as liberal and centre-right parliamentarians.

The “Global Compact for Migration’’ aims to tackle the factors that make people seek better lives abroad, to fight people smuggling and to manage borders, while protecting various migrant rights.

The document acknowledges that migration causes problems in host countries, but it also talks of the “overall economic, social and
political benefits’’ of seeking work abroad.

The pact does not deal with refugees, which are covered by a separate UN document that is being finalised.

The countries that have rejected the migration pact so far are Austria, Australia, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Israel, Poland and the United States. (Dpa/NAN)

– Nov. 21, 2018 @ 18:35 GMT |