Respectable Professor Milando, JudgeTeeburn, Mr. Ford,

Delegates,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

First of all, please allow me to express my sincere congratulations on the convening of the Sixth ASEM Informal Seminar on Human Rights in Suzhou and extend my warm welcome to friends from various parties of the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) and other international organizations, on behalf of the Chinese government.

Both Asia and Europe are cradles of ancient civilizations and have made ever-lasting contributions for the progress of human civilizations and development of science and culture. In today's world, Asian and European countries, as an important force on the international political and economic arena, are playing a more and more important role in international affairs. Although various Asian and European countries have different historical processes, levels of development and cultural traditions, they are all determined to pursue the grand goal of promoting and protecting human rights. With the encouragement of this common ideal, since its birth in 1997, the ASEM Informal Seminar on Human Rights has been developing continuously and is increasingly mature. Today, this seminar has become an important platform of communication among various countries in Asia and Europe on the human rights issue.

In the past seven years, the ASEM Informal Seminar on Human Rights has conducted in-depth discussions on quite a number of issues of common interest shared between Asia and Europe in the field of human rights, such as judicial supervision, the right to education, the right of ethnic minorities, humanitarian intervention and sovereignty, the environmental right, freedom of religion and faith and the right to social welfare and security. Various parties at the seminar not only attached importance to theoretical research on human rights during exchanges, but also put emphasis on linking theories to objective realities; not only paid attention to civilian and political rights, but also stressed economic, social and cultural rights, so that the consensus of all the parties of the ASEM on the human rights issue has been increasingly expanded and a sound foundation has been laid down to develop cooperation in related areas.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

The Meeting of the Steering Committee held in Beijing last October defined the theme of this seminar as "international migration and human rights", which is a correct choice. In the era of globalization, the issue of international migration has become an outstanding problem jointly faced by countries in the current world and the protection of human rights of international migrants is drawing increasingly widespread attention from the international community. According to the statistics, currently the migrants in the world amount to 175 million, about 3% of the world population. Admittedly, on the whole, the movement of Asian and European migrants has made great contributions to the economic development of the countries where these migrants are and promoted social development and cultural amalgamation of the two continents. But due to imbalance of regional development, rampant activities of transnational crimes and differences existing between migration policies of different countries and other perplexing reasons, the movement of migrants between Asia and Europe is also facing some problems. The issues of illegal migration and human trafficking, which are more and more serious, have doubtlessly brought about negative impact on social security, economic development and relations between countries. The protection of human rights of migrants of different types has become an issue of widespread concern in the field of international migration. How to pursue benefits while avoiding harms, realize ordered movement of legal migrants, combat illegal migration and human trafficking, and at the same time ensure legitimate rights and interests of migrants of different types is an arduous task jointly faced by countries in Asia and Europe.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

The Chinese government has always been attaching importance to the active role played by international migrants and resolutely fighting the activities of illegal migration and human trafficking. To this end, China has taken strong measures in legislative, judicial and administrative aspects. Relevant departments have strengthened entry and exit examination, improved the procedures of examining, approving and checking immigration credentials, intensified patrol and interdiction at sea as well as the cracking of cases related to stealing into another country and put stress on combating criminal groups that organize such stealing activities. Meanwhile, we give top priority to the protection of human rights in the field of migration, enhance the human rights awareness of government officials, employers, migrants and other actors involved in the migration process and regulate the behavior of relevant people by improving legislations, strictly enforcing the law and conducting education and training, in a bid to reduce and eliminate infringements on the rights of migrants of all types.

At the same time, China has taken an active part in international cooperation in migration and conducted sound bilateral collaboration with many countries including Asian and European nations and some international organizations. China jointly proposed and held the ASEM Ministerial Meeting on Management of Migrants with Spain and Germany within the framework of the ASEM and held the "Berne Initiative" Consultation Meeting for the Asia-Pacific Region on the issue of migration together with the International Migration Organization and the Swiss government in Guilin in the past July. China will continue participating in the implementation of related follow-up actions in an active and constructive manner, so as to promote the development process of Asia-Europe migration cooperation.

Ladies and Gentlemen, Friends,

The convening of this seminar entitled "international migration and human rights" enables us to have an opportunity to discuss the status quo, existing problems and resolutions of international migration between Asia and Europe and analyze the protection of human rights in international migration. Here, I would like to reaffirm once again that the Chinese government stands ready to work along with countries in Asia and Europe to make relentless efforts to resolve the issue of human rights protection in international migration, enhance exchanges and cooperation between countries in Asia and those in Europe in international migration and make active contributions to stability and prosperity of various countries and even the whole world at large.

Finally, I wish this seminar a great success and wish delegates pleasant stay and work in China.

Thank you.