Report calls for more action by international community to save lives and reduce human rights abuses
5 Jul. (EUROPA PRESS) –
United Nations agencies warned Friday that over the past three years there has been an increase in the number of migrants attempting to complete the journey through Africa to reach the shores of the Mediterranean Sea, a journey in which they are exposed to “unimaginable horrors” and which has left twice as many dead on land routes as at sea.
The report published by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the Mixed Migration Centre (MMC), entitled ‘On this journey, no one cares whether you live or die’, describes the dangers to which these people are exposed on land routes, which are less documented than those on the Mediterranean Sea, and stresses that the increase in migratory flows also increases the risks to which these people are exposed.
The UNHCR said this situation was partly due to the deterioration of the situation in some countries of origin and host countries, including the outbreak of new conflicts in Sudan and other Sahel countries, the impact of climate change on new and protracted emergency situations in East Africa and the Horn of Africa, and incidents of racism and xenophobia against refugees and migrants.
In this regard, it is noted that it is increasingly common for these people to pass through areas where insurgents, militias and criminal gangs operate, areas where human trafficking, kidnappings, forced labour and sexual exploitation are common, while these groups have also modified some of their human trafficking routes in an attempt to move away from conflict zones and border controls, passing through hard-to-reach areas that entail greater risks.
These three UN agencies have pointed out that the abuses suffered by migrants and refugees include torture, physical violence, arbitrary detention, kidnapping, sexual exploitation and violence, slavery, human trafficking, forced labour, organ harvesting for trafficking, robbery, mass expulsions and death, with criminal gangs and armed groups being the main perpetrators of these abuses. However, various security forces, the Army and immigration officials are also responsible.
The report therefore stresses that, despite the commitments made by the international community, these actions are insufficient to save lives and help these people to be less exposed on migration routes, including gaps in protection and assistance on the Central Mediterranean route, which would force refugees and migrants to embark on dangerous journeys.
In addition, survivors receive limited access to justice or specific support, and there is a lack of funding and restricted access for humanitarian workers, including to clandestine detention centres, which hinder the delivery of support to these people. As a result, these agencies have called for concrete responses to increase protection for migrants and refugees on these routes.
The agencies have also called for addressing the main causes of displacement, as well as the factors that cause irregular movements, through positive actions to consolidate peace, respect human rights, promote governance, end inequalities, address climate change and promote social cohesion and the creation of regular pathways for refugees and migrants.
“A STAIN ON THE COLLECTIVE CONSCIOUSNESS”
The UNHCR Special Envoy for the Central and Western Mediterranean, Vincent Cochetel; the Director of the IOM Office for the Mediterranean, Laurence Hart; and the Director of the MM, Bram Frows, have indicated in the report that the movement of refugees and migrants in Africa “is often reduced to its most mediatised aspect: the dangerous crossings across the Mediterranean Sea to Europe.”
“While some of the movements have their roots in North Africa, many involve multiple journeys across several countries in an attempt to reach safety or better opportunities,” they said, adding that the protection risks and “extreme forms of violence and exploitation” to which these people are exposed “are much less documented on the ground.”
In this regard, they stressed that “as the data suggests, the risks and list of unimaginable horrors that people in some countries face on the route have not disappeared.” “On the contrary,” they lamented, before recalling that the conflicts in the Sahel have left nearly five million displaced people.
“The deteriorating situation in many countries of origin and host countries is leading to an increase in the number of people embarking on dangerous journeys to the southern coasts of the Mediterranean Sea,” they argued, adding that “many of them end up in situations of extreme vulnerability.”
“While there are no comprehensive statistics on land arrivals in the many transit and initial destination countries, evidence points to increased numbers of refugees and migrants moving towards North Africa,” they noted, with a more than 200 percent increase in the number of refugees and asylum seekers in Tunisia in 2023 compared to 2020, as a tangible example.
In this regard, they have regretted that “in the period following the coronavirus pandemic, the presence of refugees and migrants in several countries was politically exploited, leading to more visible expressions of racism, which provoked protectionist incidents and fear among refugees and migrants and, therefore, more dangerous movements forward, also across the Mediterranean Sea.”
“The increased risks will continue to be downplayed by smugglers and traffickers and people will resort to what they consider to be the most effective risk mitigation strategy,” they warned, noting that “a dangerous sense of resignation has paralysed the state response on these routes.”
“We should neither accept nor become accustomed to the horrors suffered by refugees and migrants nor ignore the significance of the hugely negative human rights indicators emanating from the countries where violations and abuses take place,” they said, stressing that these events “will continue to represent a stain on the collective conscience that cannot be ignored.”
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