Representatives of over 100 countries will convene in the Moroccan city of Marrakesh on Monday and Tuesday to endorse the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration as the expression of their joint intention to define targets and measures they can apply in line with their national laws when dealing with regular migrations.

Croatia will be represented by Interior Minister Davor Bozinovic who told the Hina news agency that migrations were a global issue that must be in the long run dealt with at the global level and within the United Nations.

“The Global Compact is just the beginning of that process, and it is necessary to underline that upon the endorsement of the document, our national policy won’t be changed and the police will continue preventing any attempt of irregular arrival of foreigners on Croatian territory,” the Minister said.

Bozinovic expects the 10-11 December conference to open a debate on the causes for large-scale departures of locals from their countries and on how migration trends are influenced by political processes and climate change.

The UN pact notes that in connection with regulations each country can define what it considers to be regular migrations and what is irregular, Bozinovic said, reiterating that Croatia would continue making decisions in an independent and sovereign way on who can pass through the country and who can remain and live there.

The Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration was preceded by the 2016 New York declaration on refugees and migrants. Recently, several countries led by the U.S. have decided to withdraw their support to the Global Compact.

The opponents of the UN pact on migrations fear that the document encroaches upon the sovereignty of a country and that it erases the distinction between regular and irregular migrations. They are also afraid of a large influx of migrants that can get out of control.

On the other hand, advocates of the document point out the need for concerted action in efforts to manage migrations and call for better protection of human rights.

The Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration contains 23 measures for better management of migrations at local, national, regional and global levels and each country can decide on its own if it will implement any of those measures.

Some of the measures are aimed at “mitigating the adverse drivers and structural factors that hinder people from building and maintaining sustainable livelihoods in their countries of origin,” according to the UN website.

The document “intends to reduce the risks and vulnerabilities migrants face at different stages of migration by respecting, protecting and fulfilling their human rights and providing them with care and assistance.”

The Global Compact also “seeks to address the legitimate concerns of states and communities, while recognising that societies are undergoing demographic, economic, social and environmental changes at different scales that may have implications for and result from migration.”

It also “strives to create conducive conditions that enable all migrants to enrich our societies through their human, economic and social capacities, and thus facilitate their contributions to sustainable development at the local, national, regional and global levels.”