Throughout human history, migration has been a courageous manifestation of the will of the individual to overcome all adversity and achieve a better life. Today, as a result of globalization and advances in communications and transport, the number of people who are seeking and who are able to move to other places has increased significantly.

The new era has opened up new opportunities and at the same time posed new problems for societies not only in Kazakhstan, but throughout the world. It also highlighted the obvious link between migration and development, as well as the opportunities it provides for mutual development, i.e. consistently improving economic and social conditions in the countries of origin and destination.

Today, migration is attracting more and more public attention. The unpredictability, urgency and complexity of the tasks associated with the migration process require coherent actions and cooperation between regions and countries. The United Nations play an active role in this field, fostering dialogue and interaction between countries and regions, as well as encouraging the exchange of experience and increasing opportunities for cooperation.

On September 19, 2016, the General Assembly made a number of commitments during the first-ever high-level meeting on refugees and migrants to strengthen measures to protect refugees and migrants. These commitments are contained in the New York Declaration. It expresses the political will of world leaders aimed at saving lives, protecting human rights and equitable sharing of responsibility at the global level.

On December 10, 2018 at the Intergovernmental Conference in Marrakesh, Morocco, representatives of 164 states approved the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Legal Migration. In 2018, around 3,4 thousand migrants and refugees died worldwide. This year, the Day is intended to draw attention to the issue of protecting the dignity of migrants.

Respecting the dignity of migrants is the cornerstone of any measures to protect them.

Given that the migration processes are attracting more and more attention of the general public, it is necessary to ensure the involvement of migrants in solving their own problems in a spirit of respect for their dignity. The development of migration processes in the south of Kazakhstan indicates that in recent years a critical situation has arisen in this area: the flow of migrant workers from Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan is increasing every year. Among the main migration problems, those related to the massive illegal labor migration are coming to the fore. In fact, this led to a concentration of illegal migrants in the border areas.

The NGO “SanaSezim” celebrates the International Migrants Day annually and carries out following activities on that day:

• Information and educational activities on legal employment, access to social and medical services, access to education through the distribution of booklets and information sheets among migrant workers.
• Provision of qualified legal and social assistance to migrant workers and members of their families.
• Working of the “hotline”.

Source: http://www.un.org/ru/events/migrantsday/