A majority of UN states adopted on Monday a non-binding global pact to better handle migrant flows, according to Morocco’s foreign minister, Nasser Bourita. The minister announced the decision as host of the UN conference in Marrakesh. Talks to finalize the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration lasted 18 months and were finalized at the UN in July. The US government disavowed the negotiations late last year. Since then, Australia, Austria, the Czech Republic, Dominican Republic, Hungary, Latvia, Poland, and Slovakia have pulled out of the process. The pact lays out 23 objectives to open up legal migration and discourage illegal border crossings, as the number of people on the move globally has surged to more than 250 million. Activists argue that the pact does not go far enough to secure migrants’ rights.