HONDURAS HOSTS CELAC MEETING ON MIGRATION

Tegucigalpa, August 21 (PL)- Representatives of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) are meeting here since yesterd in the central city of Comayagua, Honduras, to prepare the first summit on migration with the European Union.

The high-level meeting is scheduled for January 2013 in Chile.

To establish a regional strategy that promotes a holistic view of migration processes, both interregional and bioregional, is the aim of this meeting, according to a press release by the Honduran Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The meeting is attended by 28 of the 33 countries of the CELAC, distributed in five working committees which will seek a common position on migration in the hemisphere in order to present it to the Heads of State and Government at the CELAC summit in 2013.

The five working groups discuss consular matters, free mobility, legislation and migration management, regional migration security and regional immigration.

This meeting is sponsored by the Economic Commission for Latin America (ECLA), the Latin American Development Bank, the International Organization for Migration, the Regional Conference on Migration and the South American Conference on Migration.

The CELAC, chaired by Chile with the support of Venezuela, is an international organization without the precense of United States and Canada, and is composed of 33 States in Central America, the Caribbean and South America.

Latin America and the Caribbean account for more than 25 million immigrants, over 13 percent of the world total.

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