Mar del Plata – The Inter-American Course on International Migration began yesterday (05/03) in Mar del Plata, Argentina with the participation of 22 representatives from 17 governments of Latin America and the Caribbean. The two-week training, organized by the IOM Regional Office for South America, celebrates this year, its 40th anniversary.

During the opening of the course, the IOM Regional Director for South America Diego Beltrand highlighted the importance of the training as a space for knowledge exchange through which nearly 1,000 government officials from Latin-American and Caribbean countries have been trained throughout the years.

Beltrand said: “This course draws on the successful experiences on migration from Latin-American and Caribbean countries such as the Resident Agreement Mercosur, which have granted nearly 2 million temporary and permanent residences as well as regional dialogues that take place in the framework of the South American Conference of Migration (SACM) and the Regional Conference on Migration (RCM).”

The Director General of Consular Affairs of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Argentina Luis María Sobrón said: "This training not only provides tools for the study and interpretation of migration policies through a solid theoretical knowledge, but also constitutes an excellent opportunity to share experiences, good practices in migration and consular matters among the participants from the different countries."

The course consists of different modules including, among others, the understanding of the migration processes, the international protection of migrants, the instruments of migration governance and the policies and the programmes of international migration. It also addresses topics such as international dialogue, regional integration processes, assistance to vulnerable migrants and gender.

This year, thanks to the financial contribution of the IOM Development Fund (IDF), a training module on the challenges and opportunities of the treatment of migration in the media has been included.

The course modules are conducted by IOM specialists as well as visiting experts in the different topics related to migration. The course also includes the participation of experts from IOM partner organizations such as the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the United Nations High Commission for Human Rights (OHCHR) and the Institute of Public Policies of Human Rights (IPPDH) of Mercosur.

This year, the course pays tribute to Juan Artola, who recently passed away. Artola worked for IOM between 1988 and 2012 and in his last position, as Regional Director for South America, he was the head of the Mar del Plata course.

For more information, please contact Juliana Quintero at the IOM Regional Office in Buenos Aires, Tel. + (54) 11 5219 2033, Email: juquintero@iom.int