DFA’s Conejos nominated to 2nd highest post in UN-linked migration body
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MANILA, April 29 (PNA) - Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Esteban Conejos Jr., in charge of Migrant Workers
Affairs, has been nominated to the post of deputy director-general (DDG) of the United Nations-linked
International Organization for Migration (IOM); it was officially announced by the Department of Foreign Affairs
(DFA).
In her nomination of the DFA senior official, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo said that “Undersecretary
Conejos will bring to the IOM the unique combination of policy expertise backed up by solid operational
capability.”
She cited Conejos’ successful chairmanship of the Second Meeting of the Global Forum on Migration and
Development (GFMD) in Manila last October and his significant contributions to the adoption of the 2007
ASEAN Declaration on the Protection and Promotion of the Rights of Migrant Workers.
The Philippines holds IOM in high regard for its role in the orderly and humane management of migration and
promotion of international cooperation in this area.
“A Philippine presence in the global migration body would provide the country an opportunity to share its world-
class standard and practices on migration management,” DFA said.
As part of his candidature, Conejos visited the IOM headquarters in Geneva in the first week of April.
The current DDG is Mrs. Ndioro Ndiyae, a Senegalese bureaucrat who has held the post since 1999.
Established in 1951, the IOM is the leading intergovernmental organization with 125 member-states that
include the Philippines and works closely with United Nations agencies linked with migration, evacuation and
repatriation.
It promotes humane and orderly migration and was a key institution in the evacuation and repatriation of more
than 6,000 Filipinos caught in the crossfire between Israeli and Hezbollah forces in the July 2006 war in
Lebanon. Conejos worked hand-in-hand with the IOM in this regard.
After the GFMD in Manila, Conejos was interviewed in November 2008 at the U.N. in New York after he gave
his report on the Manila forum to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
In that interview, Conejos said the Manila GFMD was significant in that it succeeded in shifting the debate on
international migration from the rational approach of the economic benefit of migrants “towards and back
again to the migrants themselves and their families.”
"Every country that wants to protect their boundaries has the problem of what to do if they have a lot of illegal
migrants, and mostly they are turning a blind eye. But at the point when you have a contraction of the
economy, the fear is that your society will turn against all migrants, because that's the problem. Governments
have the task to make sure their laws are not violated because it's detrimental for everyone at the end,"
he said in that interview.
The IOM has lauded the Philippines’ labor deployment system -- from recruitment, contract, training, welfare,
insurance, to protection of migrant workers’ rights. The Philippines has since then been touted as model in
migration policy and management.
Conejos has been undersecretary for Migrant Workers Affairs since February 2006. As such, he has been the
government’s point person in upholding, promoting, and protecting the rights and welfare of over eight million
Filipino migrant workers.
He coordinated the evacuation of hundreds of Filipinos during the civil disorder in Dili in 2006 and the war in
Gaza in 2009. He also helped in securing the release of Filipino workers and seamen held hostage in
various parts of the world.
Before DFA, Conejos served as undersecretary for Operations at the Department of National Defense (1998-
2001) and concurrently the chairman of the Philippine Veterans Development Corporation (1998-2001).
In 1987, he served briefly as the chief legal counsel for the Presidential Commission on Good Government
and in 1989 as consultant for the Asian Development Bank.
He holds a Master of Laws degree from Georgetown University (1980), making him a schoolmate of President
Arroyo and former U.S. President Bill Clinton. He earned his law degree from the Ateneo de Manila University
(1974) and a Bachelor of Arts degree from San Carlos Seminary (1970).
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