Media Home
UN Web TV
UN Audiovisual Library
UN PhotoUnifeed
GENEVA / MEDITERRANEAN MIGRANT RESCUE
STORY: GENEVA / MEDITERRANEAN MIGRANT RESCUE
TRT: 1:08
SOURCE: UNTV CH
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH /NATS
DATELINE: 7 DECEMBER 2018 GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
1. Exterior shot, Palais des Nations.
2. Med shot, podium.
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Ravina Shamdasani, spokesperson, Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR):
“States must protect the lives and safety of migrants and ensure that all migrants who are facing risk to their life and safety are rescued and are offered immediate assistance.”
4. Med shot, journalist.
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Ravina Shamdasani, spokesperson, Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR):
“The provision of support and assistance to migrants must not be criminalised. The decrease of search and rescue by humanitarian organisations and States’ failure to provide adequate search and rescue capacity is resulting in an increase in the vulnerability of migrants at sea.”
6. Med shot, journalists.
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Shabia Mantoo, spokesperson, UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR):
“So we do continue to call strongly for increasing search and rescue capacity on the Central Mediterranean and for leaving space for NGOs to contribute in a coordinated manner to these efforts. Saving lives is our primary concern.”
8. Med shot, journalists.
9. Med shot, podium.
States have been urged to do more to protect the lives of migrants who risk their lives crossing the Mediterranean Sea to Europe, UN agencies said on Friday, following reports that the last volunteer rescue vessel in the area, the Aquarius, has halted operations.
Speaking to journalists in Geneva, Ravina Shamdasani from UN Human Rights (OHCHR), insisted that all countries have a responsibility to avoid loss of life at sea.
“States must protect the lives and safety of migrants and ensure that all migrants who are facing risk to their life and safety are rescued and are offered immediate assistance,” she said.
Shamdasani also said “the provision of support and assistance to migrants must not be criminalised. The decrease of search and rescue by humanitarian organisations and States’ failure to provide adequate search and rescue capacity is resulting in an increase in the vulnerability of migrants at sea.”
Those concerns were echoed by Shabia Mantoo from the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) who said “so we do continue to call strongly for increasing search and rescue capacity on the Central Mediterranean and for leaving space for NGOs to contribute in a coordinated manner to these efforts,” she said. “Saving lives is our primary concern.”
Latest data from the UN Migration Agency, IOM, indicates that in the first 11 months of the year, more than 107,000 people entered Europe by sea, and 2,133 people died. That number is significantly lower than in 2017, when arrivals over the same period reached nearly 165,000 and 3,113 deaths were recorded. According to IOM, the Mediterranean continues to account for almost two-thirds of the 3,341 deaths recorded globally in 2018.
The issue of migrant protection and how States manage the movement of people worldwide is a major international preoccupation which the UN General Assembly sought to address in 2016, when it launched a process of intergovernmental negotiations designed to culminate in the Global Compact for Migration. Adoption of the compact – which is non-binding on signatories - is scheduled to take place in Marrakech, Morocco, on 10-11 December.
Download
There is no media available to download.
