Objective:

To share the preliminary findings of the study on profiles of individuals or groups involved in the facilitation of migrant smuggling in Central America, Mexico and the Dominican Republic to jointly build actionable recommendations at the national and regional level.

General objective:

Provide countries in the Americas with knowledge that can help develop and implement public policies on migration health, with a comprehensive discussion of subjects and experiences stemming from the hemisphere's migration movements.

The XXV Regional Conference on Migration comprises the following meetings:

• December 1: Meetings of the Working Groups
• December 2: Meeting of the Regional Consultation Group on Migration (RCGM)
• December 3 - 4: XXV Vice-Ministerial Meeting

Meeting of the Regional Consultation Group on Migration (RCGM)

Objective 

To identify the main regional challenges, obstacles and opportunities regarding migrant women, with a focus on gender, human rights and empowerment.

Methodology 

A participatory methodology will be used during the development of the Congress, encouraging the participants’ contributions. The agenda will be distributed in plenary sessions, panels of experts, colloquiums and working groups, on different thematic areas (gender, human rights and empowerment), as described below:

• Panels:  Consist of a dialogue with experts from Member Countries and organizations to address specific topics, highlighting different faces of women in migration.   
• Colloquiums: Is an activity to share the efforts made by the governments of the RCM Member Countries, observer organizations and civil society to implement the Guidelines on the Assistance and Protection of Women in Context of Migration.
• Working groups: A space of discussion to identify and focus on public policies and concrete actions, at the regional and national level, related to the implementation of the Guidelines.

Participants 

The participation of 3 officials from each of the Member Countries, with the following profile, is expected:

1. National mechanism for the advancement of women (national women institutes) 
2. Migration Directorates
3. Ministries of Foreign Affairs

In addition, members of the Regional Network for Civil Organizations on Migration (RNCOM) and RCM Observer Organizations are kindly invited to attend this event.

Policy and program specialists from government agencies, civil society and international organizations focused on migration health will exchange information on policies, programs, best practices and lessons learned.

The workshop will have dynamics for leveling expectations as well as informative presentations on the problem of missing persons in the context of migration, and on the role of the consular networks. It is expected to level the information of the participants about the problem and the topics that will be discussed.

GENERAL OBJECTIVE

• The workshop will be designed to contribute to the development of the Counter-Smuggling Work Plan of the Liaison Officer Network to Combat Migrant Smuggling and Trafficking, of the Regional Conference on Migration, with the aim of promoting medium- and long-term strategic policies and actions at the regional level.

SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES

During the workshop, input is expected to be generated by the RCM Member Countries under the following specific objectives:

• To have a counter-smuggling regional planning tool in place, with a comprehensive approach;
• To strengthen regional coordination and follow-up on actions and policies developed on this matter;
• To offer regional common goals in terms of preventing and combating migrant smuggling, including protection of the most vulnerable migrants, in accordance with the Guidelines established by the RCM (http://www.programamesoamerica.iom.int/sites/default/files/LINEAMIENTOS%20ingles.pdf);
• To enable the development of more standardized operating procedures in the different countries in the region;
• To promote collaboration and complementariness with other regional spaces addressing the topic to a certain extent (for example, the Regional Coalition Against Trafficking in Persons and Migrant Smuggling; the Commission of Police Chiefs and Directors for Central America, the Caribbean and Colombia; the Ad Hoc Working Group on Extraregional Migrants (RCM), etc.).

This workshop was designed jointly and thanks to the collaboration of the Technical Secretariat of the Regional Conference on Migration (RCM), Platform on Disaster Displacement (PDD), the Regional Office for Central America, North America and the Caribbean of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the Environment, Climate Change and Migration Division (MECC) of the same organization based in Geneva, Switzerland.