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STORY: GENEVA / MIGRANTS
TRT: 1.05
SOURCE: OHCHR
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 28 MAY 2013, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
FILE – RECENT 2012, PALAIS DE NATIONS, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
1. Wide shot, United Nations flag
28 MAY 2013, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
2. SOUNDBITE (English) Françios Crepeau, UN Special Rapporteur on the rights of migrants:
“There is no reason to detain migrants in an administrative setting of preventive detention, if the person presents no threat and if the person will represent themselves at proceedings. There is no reason to detain. And yet I have seen, in the countries that I have visited, for example in Greece, I have seen a policy of systematic detention of all the irregular migrants that were apprehended by the police.”
3. Cutaway, hands
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Françios Crepeau UN Special Rapporteur on the rights of migrants:
“Migration has been conceptualised as a security issue. It used to be a social and labour issue. Not at all a security issue in the 50s, 60s and early 70s. Now it is mostly dealt with, in most countries, by security services, the police, the army, the coast guards and therefore the migrant is portrayed as a security threat.”
FILE – RECENT, 2012, PALAIS DE NATIONS, GENEVA
5. Wide shot, United Nations flag
The United Nations Special Rapporteur on human rights of migrants, Françios Crepeau, has called on European governments to desist from detaining irregular migrants if they have not committed any crime.
SOUNDBITE (English) Françios Crepeau, UN Special Rapporteur on the rights of migrants:
“There is no reason to detain migrants in an administrative setting of preventive detention, if the person presents no threat and if the person will represent themselves at proceedings. There is no reason to detain. And yet I have seen, in the countries that I have visited, for example in Greece, I have seen a policy of systematic detention of all the irregular migrants that were apprehended by the police.”
Crepeau, presenting a regional study to the UN Human Rights Council, titled, “Management of the external borders of the European Union and its impact on the human rights of migrants,” emphasised the need to protect the rights of migrants.
SOUNDBITE (English) Françios Crepeau UN Special Rapporteur on the rights of migrants:
“Migration has been conceptualised as a security issue. It used to be social and labour issue not at all a security issue – now it is mostly dealt with, in most countries, by security services, the police, the army, the coast guards and therefore the migrant is portrayed as a security threat.”
The Special Rapporteur has just concluded a year- long comprehensive study to examine the rights of migrants in the Euro-Mediterranean region, focusing in particular on the management of the external borders of the European Union.
Crepeau said migrants are often criminalised. He deplored the detention of irregular migrants on the basis of territorial laws observing that detention always has to be justified.
