UN General Assembly takes up issue of migration, 14-15 September in New York

Media alert

"We are only beginning to learn how to make migration work more consistently for development. Each of us holds a piece of the migration puzzle, but none has the whole picture. It is time to start putting it together. We have a unique opportunity to do this by identifying, assessing, and sharing the many experiments in managing migration now being tried around the world. And since migration is a global phenomenon-which occurs not only between pairs of countries or within regions, but from almost every corner of the world to every other-it requires our collective attention.

I am confident that September's High-Level Dialogue will be remembered as the moment when cooperation on this vital matter attained a new level." UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, June 2006

This year, the UN General Assembly convenes an unprecedented two-day discussion of matters relating to migration, development and cooperation among governments. In advance of the meeting, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan issued a major report on migration and development, and appointed Peter Sutherland (chairman of British Petroleum, former head of the WTO) as his special representative on the issue.

To request a preview interview with a senior UN official or obtain regional fact sheets on migration and development, contact Oisika Chakrabarti, 1-212-963-8264, chakrabarti@un.org , or Tim Wall, 1-212-963-5851, wallt@un.org , of the UN Department of Public Information, Development Section.

To obtain media credentials for the General Assembly High-Level Dialogue on International Migration and Development, please fax a letter of assignment to 1-212-963-4642, and follow-up with a call to the UN Media Accreditation Unit at 1-212-963-7164.