UNB, Dhaka :
A United Nations human rights expert has issued a strongly worded critique of the international community’s failure to protect the lives of migrants and refugees, and to investigate their deaths.
“Mass casualties of refugees and migrants globally; a regime of impunity for the perpetrators and overall tolerance for these fatalities: this can only be described as a human rights and humanitarian crisis and it demands urgent attention,” said the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, Agnes Callamard, presenting a report to the UN General Assembly in New York on Friday.
She, however, said this crisis can be addressed.
The expert emphasized that criminal networks and armed groups pose the greatest risks to migrants’ lives, and that these risks are compounded by governments’ failure to protect.
Callamard urged states to respect and protect the right to life of all refugees and migrants, including by respecting the principle of non-refoulement.
In a series of recommendations, she said the 2018 global compact on safe, orderly and regular migration and the 2018 global compact on refugees should include a focus on the prevention of, and responses to, the arbitrary deprivation of life of refugees and migrants.
The human rights expert called for the development and implementation of common protocols for search and rescue operations, the tracing of the missing, and the treatment of dead migrants and refugees.
“Mass killings of refugees and migrants constitute an international crime whose banality in the eyes of so many makes its tragedy particularly grave,” said Callamard, urging states to prioritise investigations into all practices that endanger the lives or safety of the migrants and refugees, and to collect and share data on the dead and missing.
“All people’s lives should be equally protected and all unlawful loss of life should be investigated, regardless of migration status,” she said.
The Special Rapporteur also commended non-governmental groups and some national and local authorities for their search-and-rescue operations at sea, forensic investigations and dignified treatment of the dead.
A United Nations human rights expert has issued a strongly worded critique of the international community’s failure to protect the lives of migrants and refugees, and to investigate their deaths.
“Mass casualties of refugees and migrants globally; a regime of impunity for the perpetrators and overall tolerance for these fatalities: this can only be described as a human rights and humanitarian crisis and it demands urgent attention,” said the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, Agnes Callamard, presenting a report to the UN General Assembly in New York on Friday.
She, however, said this crisis can be addressed.
The expert emphasized that criminal networks and armed groups pose the greatest risks to migrants’ lives, and that these risks are compounded by governments’ failure to protect.
Callamard urged states to respect and protect the right to life of all refugees and migrants, including by respecting the principle of non-refoulement.
In a series of recommendations, she said the 2018 global compact on safe, orderly and regular migration and the 2018 global compact on refugees should include a focus on the prevention of, and responses to, the arbitrary deprivation of life of refugees and migrants.
The human rights expert called for the development and implementation of common protocols for search and rescue operations, the tracing of the missing, and the treatment of dead migrants and refugees.
“Mass killings of refugees and migrants constitute an international crime whose banality in the eyes of so many makes its tragedy particularly grave,” said Callamard, urging states to prioritise investigations into all practices that endanger the lives or safety of the migrants and refugees, and to collect and share data on the dead and missing.
“All people’s lives should be equally protected and all unlawful loss of life should be investigated, regardless of migration status,” she said.
The Special Rapporteur also commended non-governmental groups and some national and local authorities for their search-and-rescue operations at sea, forensic investigations and dignified treatment of the dead.
