UN rights expert urges EU to focus on migrants' rights

Today's post is shared from Jurist.org The UN Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants [official website] Francois Crepeau urged [press release] the EU on Monday to adopt a new approach to migration that focuses on the rights of migrants. The discussion was centered around last week's sinking of the Lampedusa [BBC report] off the coast of Italy, which claimed the lives of 194 Eritrean and Somali migrants. Crepeau visited Italy in May to study the external border management of the EU and its impact on human rights of migrants and urged [JURIST report] EU member states to prioritize human rights in the development of their migration policies. "This tragedy reminds us of the importance of that recommendation," Crepeau stated. "If countries continue to criminalize irregular migration, without adopting new legal channels for migration, especially for low-skilled migrants ... the number of migrants risking their lives on dangerously overcrowded and unseaworthy vessels over perilous sea routes can only increase." Last month UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay [official profile] called on governments [JURIST report] to create human rights-based policies addressing migration. In May Crepeau visited both sides of the border in Turkey, Greece, Tunisia and Italy [official reports] to... [Click here to see the rest of this post]

Found on

Related articles

• Italy boat disaster due to crackdown: UN (sbs.com.au)
• #Lampedusa #migration #refugees #humanrights #humanitariancrisis #asylum #unitednations (rotenotes.wordpress.com)
• Spanish Revolution Links (rotenotes.wordpress.com)
• Lampedusa tragedy: Boat migrants death toll 'to exceed 300' (standard.co.uk)
• Italian migrant death toll reaches at least 194 (bigstory.ap.org)
• Italy boat sinking: hundreds of migrants still missing off Lampedusa (theguardian.com)