ALGIERS- The secretary of State to the minister of Foreign Affairs, for National Community Abroad, Sofiane Chaib, said on Sunday that Algeria was, thanks to its efforts, a key player at the regional and international levels regarding the migration issue.
In a speech delivered at the opening of the High-Level Workshop on the participation of the national community abroad in the country's development efforts, organized in Algiers in collaboration with the International Organization for Migration (IOM), Chaib said that “Algeria is today a key player at the regional and international levels regarding the migration issue, working to coordinate efforts within a consultative framework aimed at ensuring optimal management of this phenomenon.”
In this regard, Algeria called for "a comprehensive, integrated, coordinated and solidarity-based approach, building on most of the regional and international legal frameworks relating to migration, the protection of migrants' rights and the preservation of human dignity,” the Secretary of State underlined.
He said that his meeting with the head of the IOM mission in Algeria, just a few days after taking office, enabled “reviewing the significant progress made by Algeria in this field.”
The efforts made by the State in this framework are praised and considered as “examples to follow on an international scale,” he added.
In his speech, Chaib emphasized the great interest that the President of the Republic, Abdelmadjid Tebboune, places in the participation of the national community abroad in the national development process, as this category is, as stipulated by the Algerian Constitution, an integral part of Algerian society.
This is an approach “placed at the heart of the government action plan, which the Secretariat of State responsible for the National Community Abroad is working to implement,” he said, pointing out that the Algerian diaspora “has alaways demonstrated its deep attachment, its unshakeable bond and its pride towards the motherland, whether through its precious contribution to the national struggle and the glorious Liberation Revolution, its notable participation in national construction or through its constant solidarity with the children of the country during the difficult periods that the country has gone through.”
The national community abroad now counts among its ranks enormous recognized and specialized skills in different fields, ready to actively participate in the country's development process, at a time when the national economy is experiencing remarkable dynamism thanks to the judicious reforms initiated by the country's high authorities, particularly through investment, financial transfers and the exchange of expertise and know-how, emphasized the Secretary of State.
Furthermore, regarding this meeting, organized for the first time in Algeria in collaboration with a UN organization specialized in this field, Chaib underscored that it “aims to exchange best practices and share expertise in order to support and strengthen the national community's engagement in the country's development process.”
He underlined, in this regard, that “Algeria was among the first countries to have implemented pioneering frameworks and policies aimed at structuring and supervising the national diaspora abroad,” praising, in this respect, the level of cooperation existing between Algeria and the UN organization to achieve the objectives set in their different programs.
For her part, the head of the IOM mission in Algeria, Lalini Veerassamy, said that Algeria had adopted a national strategy aimed at mobilizing its skills abroad through several initiatives, emphasizing that the national community abroad “plays a major role on the political and economic scene.”
Strengthening ties with diaspora members is “essential to achieve national development objectives and consolidate international partnership,” she said.
Regarding this two-day workshop, the UN official explained that it “aims to exchange experiences in the field of governance and mobilization of communities abroad and to share the expertise developed by the IOM in this matter with member states.”
