On 10 December 2018, 164 countries formally adopted the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration, a non-binding global framework on a common approach to international migration in all its dimensions. The Global Compact had been agreed in July 2018 by all 193 UN member states, except the United States. However in addition to the United States, several other countries refused to adopt the Global Compact, including Hungary, Austria, Italy, Poland, Slovakia, Chile and Australia. 

Negotiations leading to the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration began in 2016, following the arrival of over one million people into Europe.

The Global Compact is framed consistent with target 10.7 of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in which Member States committed to cooperate internationally to facilitate safe, orderly and regular migration. It sets out 23 objectives for safe, orderly and regular migration. Some of the objectives and policy recommendations aim to:

• gather better data on international migration

• minimise factors that compel people to leave their own country

• provide migrants with a proof of legal identity

• reduce vulnerabilities in migration, including "the conditions they face in countries of origin, transit and destination"

• combat smuggling and people trafficking