Question to the Department for International Development:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, with reference to the absence in the UN Global Compact for Migration of the UK’s three main objectives as set out in the Prime Minister’s addresses to the UN General Assembly in 2016 and 2017, whether the Government plans to decline to sign that compact at the forthcoming UN meeting in Morocco.

The UK Government is supportive of the UN’s Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration, both as a step forward in international co-operation to tackle irregular migration and as a framework to help us deliver our commitments under the Sustainable Development Goals.

As a leading voice in the negotiations, the UK Government secured positive outcomes in the final text which clearly support the Prime Minister’s main objectives as set out in her speech to the United Nations General Assembly. This includes a clear differentiation between refugees and migrants; the recognition of a State’s right to control their borders and proposals to help States build capacity in this area; and an explicit acknowledgement of States’ responsibility to accept the return of their nationals who no longer have the right to remain elsewhere.