UN agencies call on Security Council to protect the human rights of migrants News
John Samuel, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
UN agencies call on Security Council to protect the human rights of migrants

The United Nations International Organization for Migration (IOM) stated on Tuesday that urgent action from the UN Security Council is needed to prevent death on migration routes to Europe, noting that humanitarian law is no longer providing migrants with reliable protection from violations of their human rights.

The IOM noted that ever more dangerous migration routes are being utilized to seek refuge in Europe. A recent joint report by the UNHCR, IOM, and Mixed Migration Centre found that there are “major gaps in access to protection and humanitarian assistance along the routes,” with people using these routes at high risk of violence, kidnapping, and exploitation.

International human rights law provides migrants in all territories with “the same international human rights as everyone else.” This imposes a positive obligation on states to prevent violations of migrants’ human rights in areas that are subject to a state’s control. In light of this obligation, the IOM wants states to take preventative approaches to the safety of migrants, especially on migration routes across the Mediterranean Sea. Additionally, the agency encourages states to provide legitimate legal humanitarian pathways for those who seek safe refuge.

According to the IOM, refugee and migrant deaths reached the highest level last year since data started being recorded in 2014. On Monday, a boat sank in the Mediterranean Sea, killing 12 and leaving 10 missing.

Migration is being driven by several factors, including economic reasons such as high food prices and low wages, war, and other targeted violence. The UN Refugee Agency notes that 75 percent of refugees are held in low- and middle-income countries.

In Europe, resistance to the European Union’s migration and asylum policy has been growing, with the Netherlands and Hungary wanting to opt out of the policy, Germany and Italy introducing border controls to combat irregular migration, and France introducing stricter immigration policies.

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