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STORY: GENEVA / MIGRANTS HUMAN RIGHTS
TRT: 3:03
SOURCE: UNTV CH
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 19 SEPTEMBER 2014, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
1. Wide shot, exterior, Palais des Nations
2. Wide shot, Press Briefing room
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Rupert Colville, Spokesperson for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights:
“UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, has just issued a news release urging Egypt and other North African and European States with relevant information to make a concerted effort to bring to justice the people smugglers who allegedly deliberately sank a boat causing the deaths of between 300 and 500 refugees and migrants in the Mediterranean last week.”
4. Med shot, UN spokespersons
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Rupert Colville, Spokesperson for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights:
“High Commissioner Zeid stresses that it was crucial to bring to an end the prevailing impunity surrounding such crimes and is urging states to do more to address the root causes driving people to make such dangerous journeys.”
6. Close up, journalist
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Rupert Colville, Spokesperson for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights:
“It is the duty of states to investigate such atrocious crimes, bring the perpetrators to justice and, even more importantly, to do more to prevent them from happening in the first place. All the countries in the Mediterranean must make a concerted effort to clamp down on the smugglers who are exploiting one of the most vulnerable groups on the planet and endangering their lives, on a daily basis, purely for financial gain.”
8. Close up, journalist
9. SOUNDBITE (English) Rupert Colville, spokesperson for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights:
“The High Commissioner says that the callous act of deliberately ramming a boat full of hundreds of defenseless people is a crime that must not go unpunished. If the survivors’ accounts are indeed true – and they appear all too credible – we are looking at what amounts to mass murder in the Mediterranean. All countries would throw the full weight of their police forces and justice systems behind an investigation if the victims were their own citizens and were killed by criminal gangs on their own soil. The reaction should not be any less rigorous just because the victims are foreigners and the crime took place on the high seas. Yet very few people who kill, rape or rob migrants during their journeys end up in court.”
10. Med shot, journalists
11. SOUNDBITE (English) Rupert Colville, spokesperson for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights:
“The migrants and refugees were first embarked on a boat in the Egyptian port of Damietta. And the High Commissioner is urging the Greek, Maltese and Italian authorities to share information on the identity of the smugglers and their methods of operation with the Egyptian authorities, who should also immediately launch a full and thorough investigation. He points out that you cannot transport large quantities of foreigners in buses into a major port and cram them on board a fairly large ship without the port authorities and other witnesses being aware of what is going on.”
12. Med shot, journalists
The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, said that the people smugglers who allegedly deliberately sank a boat in the Mediterranean last week, causing the deaths of between 300 to 500 refugees and migrants, must be brought to justice.
He urged Egypt and other North African and European states to carry out thorough investigations into the people smugglers and the sinking of the boat and to do more to prevent such an incident happening again.
The High Commissioner said that all countries in the Mediterranean must make a concerted effort to clamp down on the smugglers who are exploiting one of the most vulnerable groups on the planet and endangering their lives, on a daily basis, purely for financial gain.
According to the 11 survivors interviewed by the International Organization for Migration (IOM), the migrants and refugees left the Egyptian port of Damietta on a boat. After five days at sea, in horrifically cramped conditions, chaos ensued when the migrants were told by smugglers in another vessel that they had to switch to a smaller, less sea-worthy boat. Some migrants ended up in the water while survivors have said that this is when the smugglers’ boat rammed their vessel, sinking it. The tragedy happened near Malta.
The Spokesperson for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Rupert Colville said that those responsible must be punished:
“If the survivors’ accounts are indeed true – and they appear all too credible – we are looking at what amounts to mass murder in the Mediterranean.
He said that “all countries would throw the full weight of their police forces and justice systems behind an investigation if the victims were their own citizens and were killed by criminal gangs on their own soil. He noted that the reaction of Northern African and European States should not be “any less rigorous just because the victims are foreigners and the crime took place on the high seas.
Colville stressed that “very few people who kill, rape or rob migrants during their journeys end up in court.”
It’s believed that the passengers included a substantial number of Palestinians, many of them from Gaza, as well as Egyptians, Syrians, Sudanese and possibly other nationalities.
