A two-day regional conference on “Linking migration with the development of countries of origin in the Western Balkans” began on Thursday (13 Oct.) in Sarajevo. The conference was organized by the BiH Ministry for Human Rights and Refugees with the help of the Instrument for Technical Assistance and Exchange of Information of the Directorate-General for Enlargement of the European Commission (TAIEX). H Minister for Human Rights and Refugees Safet Halilović said the conference would deal with an issue that concerns all the countries in the region, namely the high level of emigration and the potential for utilizing the human, financial and social resources that members of the Diaspora can bring to the Western Balkans. nister Halilović told the conference that there are currently between seven and eight million migrants who originated in the Western Balkans, and this constitutes about a quarter of the region’s total population. About 20 percent of those who have emigrated are highly educated. The members of the Diaspora send about 10 billion dollars annually in remittances, which is ten percent of the region’s gross domestic product. uot;This issue should not be neglected, either by the countries that migrants leave or the countries they go to, and it should be taken into account by the European Union and as part of the integration process of the Western Balkan countries,” Halilović said. “When it comes to the politics of migration, the European Union countries so far have focused almost exclusively on immigration and asylum, while emigration has been neglected. Most EU Member States are not facing the problem of high emigration outflow, so until recently this issue has not been treated in EU policy." wever, in recent years, as well as dealing with legal and illegal migration, EU policy has started to make a link between migration and development, said Maria Farrar-Hockley, the Head of Operations in the Section of Justice, Interior and Public Administration Reform of the EU Delegation to BiH. Farrar-Hockley told the conference that the EU’s Global Approach to Migration, adopted in 2005, provides a framework for dialogue and cooperation among countries of origin, transit and reception of migrants. uot;The Global Approach to Migration focuses on three main objectives, one of which is to strengthen the synergies between migration and development," Farrar-Hockley said. e said that specific initiatives under the Global Approach deal with linking migration and development, remittances of emigrants, the role that members of the Diaspora can play in development, and steps that can reduce the negative impact of “brain-drain”, as well as the transfer of pension rights and social aspects of migration. e European Union provides technical and financial support for The Global Approach, and individual cooperation programs have been established with non-EU countries regarding migration and asylum. snia and Herzegovina has the second-highest number of emigrants of any European country. A total of 38.9 percent of Bosnia and Herzegovina’s population lives outside the country, and BiH emigrants are among the most highly-educated, BiH Deputy Minister for Human Rights and Refugees Ruzmira Tihić-Kadrić told the conference. Most BiH emigrants left during the war, but migration has continued since then. tar Barišić of the Croatian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integration said that three million Croats live outside Croatia, and this does not take into account the 750,000 or so Croats living in neighboring countries including Bosnia and Herzegovina. He said the main reason for emigration is economic, though there are also political factors. nference participants agreed that members of the Diaspora have a major potential to contribute to the development of the countries in the region. They also agreed that it is necessary to standardize migration policy and adopt a systematic approach. As an underlying principle, reducing emigration from the region will depend on a corresponding increase in regional economic development.