Allow me at the outset to thank the UN Network on Migration and the Permanent Mission of Ecuador for organizing this event. We are particularly pleased to participate in this dialogue, having joined the GCM Champions Initiative in March this year.
Sri Lanka values the opportunity to listen to Ecuador’s new GCM National Implementation Plan (2025–2029) and also hear from other GCM Champions, on their national experiences.
For Sri Lanka, ensuring and promoting Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration, is a priority. As a party to the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families, Sri Lanka has been at the forefront of promoting rights-based migration, internationally.
Recognizing the evolving migration dynamics and Sri Lanka’s status as a GCM Champion Country, the Government is currently revisiting the National Implementation Plan which was developed in 2022.
In this context, the National GCM Implementation Committee has been consulting with stakeholder Ministries and Agencies to identify actions under relevant GCM objectives for each one of them, to update the National GCM Implementation Plan which is expected to be finalized very soon. The National GCM Implementation Committee will be responsible for implementation, review, and reporting on Sri Lanka’s national GCM Implementation Plan once it is finalised.
We wish to take this opportunity to thank IOM for partnering with the Government of Sri Lanka and providing technical support in this process.
As a sending, receiving, and transit State even prior to the adoption of the GCM in 2018, Sri Lanka has been at the forefront of promoting safe, orderly and regular migration pathways. In particular, being the founding chair of the Colombo Process, a regional consultative process on labour migration, established in 2003, Sri Lanka has been committed to enhancing regional cooperation, promoting the sharing of best practices related to labour migration in countries of origin of South and South-East Asia.
Sri Lanka participated in the 2nd Asia-Pacific Regional Review of the GCM in February 2025 and in the lead up to the Regional Review, Sri Lanka also had the opportunity to co-host with IOM the South Asia´s Sub-Regional Consultation. The sub-regional consultation focussed on three key areas of significance to South Asia namely, labour migration; counter-trafficking; and climate-induced displacement.
Sri Lanka has contextualised GCM in to domestic policies. In 2023, Sri Lanka launched its National Policy and Action Plan on Migration for Employment 2023 - 2027 aligning with the implementation of the GCM. Sri Lanka also recently hosted a delegation of member States from East and Horn of Africa to exchange knowledge and best practices related to labour migration governance. The national GCM implementation plan will further strengthen Sri Lanka’s commitment to ensuring safe, orderly, regular, and rights-based migration.
Sri Lanka looks forward to remain engaged with the GCM champions in the relevant fora, as well as in the process leading upto the International Migration Review Forum (IMRF) in New York next year, to assess and review the GCM.
Thank you.