Manila - Countries affected by the global financial crisis should remain open to migrant workers who can help boost their ailing economies amid the economic slowdown, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said Wednesday.
Ban said he was "deeply concerned" that more than 200 million migrant workers around the world were adversely affected by the economic slowdown, as labourers in badly hit sectors such as construction and tourism start to lose their jobs.
"Today, we face a cascade of national financial crises throughout the world," he told the Global Forum on Migration and Development in Manila. "Almost none of our economies is insulated."