On Tuesday and Wednesday, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees held a Dialogue on Protection Challenges to address protection needs for "refugees and migrants around the world [who] risk their lives every day in desperate attempts to find safety or a better life." The numbers are shocking: of West African migrants attempting to reach the Canary Islands, more than 1,000 have been reported missing in 2007; of Ethiopians and Somalis fleeing the violence of their home states by sea to Yemen, 1,221 were reported missing this year. (See here for "Immigration everywhere," a prior, related post.)You can view here the terrifying stories of several of these migrants, as well as the touching testimony of an Italian coastguard commander haunted by the bodies of dead children he has retrieved from the sea. As the video notes, the increasingly tight borders in Europe have taken a heavy human toll, and are unrealistic in this age of globalization. While UNHCR points to the duty of States to protect the human rights of "people living outside their country of origin, whatever their legal status or their location in the world" and to protect the rights of their citizens, whether at home or abroad, it seems that these desperate migrants are increasingly falling through the cracks. Despite the particular rights that attach to refugees and those fearing torture, and the right to life endowed in all human beings, migrants face "detention
and imprisonment; destitution and exploitation; trafficking and smuggling; physical abuse and harassment; racial or ethnic discrimination; interception, abandonment and drowning at sea; as well as return or transfer to remote and dangerous locations." The solution? UNHCR suggests that States and international organizations provide and promote safe, legal, and organized opportunities for migration. We've seen this already with Spain's trailblazing program to offer legal passage and a one-year renewable work visa to young Africans -- a solution that not only prevents deaths at sea but fills Spain's increasing labor needs. As Americans debate the appropriateness of immigration platforms presented by presidential candidates, let's keep in mind the many lives that are at stake on both sides of the Atlantic. (Photos courtesy of UNHCR.)
