Thank you Madam President.
We welcome the report by the Special Rapporteur and his efforts to highlight increasing restrictions placed on migrants’ rights, as well as the threats and harassment faced by civil society organizations who seek to assist them. These trends are particularly alarming in the context of Covid-19, which has led many states to enact emergency measures that in effect further restrict migrants’ freedom of association and contribute to exacerbating the vulnerabilities of certain groups.
We share the concerns noted by the Special Rapporteur and the High Commissioner herself regarding States demonstrating a lethal disregard for the lives and dignity of migrants through overly securitized border policing. Just in the last few months, Human Rights Watch has reported on European governments’ declaring their ports ‘unsafe’ for the disembarkation of ships carrying people rescued at sea, putting the lives of migrants significantly at risk and violating their obligations under international law to provide access to asylum and denying the right to non-refoulement. When migrants do make it to shore, they are often kept in overcrowded reception centres or detention facilities that lack access to adequate water, sanitation and hygiene products. Similarly, we have reported on concerted efforts by the United States to prevent migrants from exercising their right to seek asylum, including by using the cover of the COVID-19 pandemic to expel them without hearings.
Guaranteeing the right to freedom of association is indeed crucial to ensure that migrants are able to advocate for themselves and hold governments accountable for such policies that significantly impact their enjoyment of a range of political, social, cultural and economic rights. This goes hand in hand with putting an end to punitive measures carried out against civil society organizations providing crucial services and life-saving assistance, particularly for vulnerable groups such as migrant women, unaccompanied children, migrant workers and domestic workers, and those who remain in migration detention for indefinite periods of time.
Protecting the human rights of migrants is a transnational issue that requires a concerted global effort and cooperation amongst all States. We urge all States to demonstrate their commitment to comprehensively addressing the range of challenges migrants face and to share best practices in this field. We further call on States to take concrete steps to ensure better representation of migrants’ voices and experiences within Human Rights Council debates.
