Policy paper

Annex 2: joint statement on irregular migration (accessible)

Published 18 October 2024

The Five Countries have a long and proud tradition of welcoming migrants and providing protection to the most vulnerable people across the world. We remain committed to promoting and protecting the human rights of all migrants, including refugees, and will continue to offer protection in line with our international obligations. We will strive to ensure the successful integration into our respective countries and communities of migrants and refugees who have a lawful right to remain. It is our responsibility to ensure that we have the necessary national, regional and international architecture in place to maximise the positive aspects of safe, orderly and regular migration, whilst also addressing global irregular migration.

Globally, irregular migration and forced displacement have increased in scale. This presents complex challenges that need to be addressed through a well-managed, coordinated, flexible and whole-of-route strategy. We recognise the value of a comprehensive approach which takes into account the diverse and multi-dimensional drivers of irregular movement and forced displacement. These drivers can include conflict and violence, poverty, political instability, crime and corruption, environmental degradation and climate change, or the seeking of family reunification or economic opportunities.

The Five Countries aim to work together to identify and implement consistent, equitable, and mutually beneficial partnerships that develop and stabilise source countries, improve the capacity of transit countries, and deter individuals from embarking on dangerous or irregular journeys or attempting to misuse our migration systems.

Further, the Five Countries remain committed to disrupting the activities of bad actors, and taking swift action against those who exploit the vulnerable and who violate, or facilitate the violation of, our respective immigration laws. This includes working to combat attempts to misuse our migration systems, including through visa fraud. We will endeavour to prevent and disrupt people smuggling activities and prosecute the people smuggling groups and facilitators responsible. We will also seek to return, in a fair, safe and orderly manner, those individuals who have no legal basis to remain in our countries, consistent with our domestic and international obligations.

As partners, the Five Countries acknowledge the existing international migration and protection frameworks and value the activities and partnerships with international organisations across the migration space, including the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) and the International Criminal Police Organisation (INTERPOL). We will continue to collaborate with these institutions and leverage existing national, regional and international frameworks to bolster our responses through strengthened institutions, systems and processes.

The Five Countries encourage pragmatic approaches to establishing migration policies and managing their sovereign borders in defence of national security, and in accordance with our obligations under national and international law. To this end, we affirm our collective responsibility to identify and better understand the evolving challenges of irregular migration. We commit to working together, learning from best practice based on robust evidence and analysis to identify and implement effective and sustainable solutions. Our efforts will include taking bold, flexible approaches and action, where needed.

The Five Countries agree that it is through committed and focused partnerships that we will deliver results on providing protection to the most vulnerable whilst protecting our borders and maintaining public confidence in our migration and protection systems, in line with our international obligations and commitments.