The delegation of the SCO RATS Executive Committee took part in the international conference "Measures taken in the Republic of Belarus to combat illegal migration and best practices in promoting regional cooperation in addressing this problem", organized by the Ministries of Foreign and Internal Affairs and the State Border Committee of the Republic of Belarus on November 15, 2024 in Minsk. 

At the beginning of the event, which was divided into two thematic sections, the State Secretary of the Security Council of the Republic of Belarus Alexander Volfovich addressed the participants with a welcoming speech, emphasizing that his country was making every effort to reduce the severity of the problem under consideration, but a real effect would only be possible through close cooperation with neighboring states and the global community as a whole. 

The first session, which was devoted to the efforts of the Republic of Belarus to combat illegal migration, was attended by the Chairman of the State Border Committee Konstantin Molostov, First Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs Yuri Nazarenko, Minister of Foreign Affairs Maxim Ryzhenkov, First Deputy Minister of Labor and Social Protection Tatyana Astreiko, Director General of the National Library Vadim Gigin, Secretary General of the Belarusian Red Cross Dmitry Shevtsov and a migrant from Afghanistan who received Belarusian citizenship Sayeed Shamkani.

In their reports, they highlighted the main challenges facing the Republic of Belarus in the area under consideration, examples of best national practices and the role of migration in national development. 

During the second session, devoted to issues of international and regional cooperation in combating illegal migration, reports were heard from the Head of the Secretariat of the Governing Bodies of the International Organization for Migration Deyan Keserovich, Deputy Head of the Regional Representation of the International Committee of the Red Cross in the Russian Federation and the Republic of Belarus Bruyninckx, Deputy Secretary-General of the CSTO Valery Semerikov, Senior Political Adviser of the UNHCR Regional Bureau for Europe Christine Goyer, Specialist of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights K. Barreda, Deputy Director of the SCO RATS Executive Committee Nurmukhamed Turdumamatov, Deputy Director of the Department of Multilateral Cooperation on Human Rights of the Russian Foreign Ministry Albert Sitnikov and Head of the Department for Combating Organized Crime and Illicit Trafficking of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime Aryee Loide.   

The representative of the SCO RATS Executive Committee noted in his presentation that at present the global community sees illegal migration among the main challenges and threats to international security, since its channels are used by terrorists to move militants. Joint measures taken by the SCO countries in the last three years alone have uncovered 50 channels of illegal migration in the territories of the region’s states that were used for terrorist purposes