EUROPE-MIGRANTS/UN Sealing international borders is impossible - U.N. envoy

Record ID: 151434

  • Title: EUROPE-MIGRANTS/UN Sealing international borders is impossible - U.N. envoy
  • Date: 16th June 2015
  • Summary: GENEVA, SWITZERLAND (JUNE 16, 2015) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF U.N. BUILDING/ FLAGS NEWS CONFERENCE ONGOING (SOUNDBITE) (English) THE SPECIAL RAPPORTEUR ON THE HUMAN RIGHTS OF MIGRANTS, FRANCOIS CREPEAU SAYING: "My message was, in three words: mobility, mobility, mobility. We cannot fight smuggling rings which are adaptable, technology savvy. Unless we provide mobility solutions
  • Embargoed: 1st July 2015 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Switzerland
  • Country: Switzerland
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA3N7KKJYHD6QJZ0LK4BKBKCJQV
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Sealing international borders is impossible and only empowers people traffickers in the Mediterranean, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants, Francois Crepeau said Tuesday (June 16) in Geneva.
    "My message was, in three words: mobility, mobility, mobility. We cannot fight smuggling rings which are adaptable, technology savvy. Unless we provide mobility solutions that actually outsmart the mobility solutions provided by the smugglers," Crepeau told a news conference after he presented his report in front of the Human Rights Council.
    The European Union is struggling with the question of what to do about thousands of migrants flocking to its shores across the Mediterranean, often dying in the attempt.
    More than 200,000 migrants and asylum seekers arrived in Europe by sea in 2014 compared with 80,000 in 2013, according to current estimates. So far this year, Europe has already received over 100,000 who have arrived by boat, with some frontline states reporting daily arrivals.
    "People who come across the Mediterranean are survival migrants. Whether they are refugees from Syria, Eritrea or whether they are from Sub-Saharan Africa and they are being termed economic migrants, in both cases they are survival migrants. They tried to escape their dire circumstances. And they will come, no matter what," said the special rapporteur.
    The expert called on the EU to establish a human rights-based, coherent and comprehensive migration policy which makes mobility its central asset.
    "We should certainly not try to continue on prohibition strategies and policies, because prohibition breeds undergrounds markets," he said.
    Crepeau also asked the European member states to open up more regular migration channels and at the same time, repress unscrupulous employers who exploit the fear of asylum seekers.
    By focusing on legalising, regulating and taxing migrants, EU countries could ensure they know where they are and ensure migrants comply with their Visa conditions, rather than driving them into an underground economy, Crepeau said.
    "People will not risk twenty thousand Euros and the life of their kids on rickety boats, if there is a Danish booth and a Canadian booth and a New Zealand booth. They will line up and they will contribute even some money to buying the visa if necessary, they will do that," said the expert.
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