Vatican nuncio at U.N. urges 'people-centered' migration policies

Published: 2006-04-10

UNITED NATIONS (CNS) -- When immigration is seen as "a problem to be solved," it may be "painted as a threat and ... manipulated for short-term political gain," the Vatican's representative to the United Nations told the U.N. Commission on Population and Development April 5. Archbishop Celestino Migliore, the permanent observer of the Holy See to the international body, said such an approach can be detrimental to "the most natural rights of all human beings -- the right to life, to citizenship, to work and to development." The archbishop said, "For this reason, the upcoming high-level dialogue on this subject is very welcome; indeed it is a long overdue discussion on a perennial social question with consequences for people far beyond the 191 million or so presently considered migrants." The commission met April 3-7 at U.N. headquarters in New York to prepare for the Sept. 14-15 dialogue on international migration and development, also to be held in New York.

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