United Nations, February 28(RHC) -- UN General Assembly President Maria Fernanda Espinosa Garces said Wednesday that comprehensive inclusion of migrants is needed for achieving the United Nations' 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

"We will not be able to achieve the sustainable development goals if we do not comprehensively include migrants," said the General Assembly president in her opening remarks to the High-Level Debate on International Migration and Development.

Affirming that the agenda is people-centered, she point to a specific target of the agenda that "refers to the need to facilitate safe, regular, and responsible migration and calls for the implementation of planned and well managed migration policies."

To do this, she said, "We must include migrants in policies and activities aimed at expanding access to quality education, to health, to housing and basic services."

Meanwhile, Espinosa stressed achieving sustainable development helps to mitigate adverse drivers of migration, as it is "the best preventative tool" for "disorderly migration."

"Let us bear in mind that no one decides to leave behind their family, their land, their belongings, without a powerful reason for doing so," she told the meeting.