The United Nations Office at Geneva
Multimedia Newsroom
UNHCR Hybrid press conference 29 July 2020
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1:13:15
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MP4
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703.5 MB
- Exterior shot, Palais des Nations flag alley, nations’ flags flying, a blue sky day.
- Wide shot, podium with speakers sitting wide apart in Press Room III, which is relatively empty, in line with COVID-19 distancing measures, Palais des Nations.
- Medium shot, TV camera crews, journalist, Press Room III, Palais des Nations.
- SOUNDBITE (English) — Othman Belbeisi, IOM Senior Regional Advisor to the Director General on Middle East and North Africa: “Abuse actually is along the route and even sometimes it starts within the country of origin and follows people as they move. Especially as they are moving at the hands of those smugglers and traffickers. People do not know their locations and they do not have communications, so even if people die or go missing, it’s very difficult to verify or to know where those people get missed.”
- Close-up, two podium speakers in profile, one is talking, Press Room III, Palais des Nations.
- SOUNDBITE (English) — Vincent Cochetel, UNHCR Special Envoy for the Central Mediterranean: “The perpetrators of physical violence, in 47 per cent of the case, the victims reported the perpetrators of violence are law enforcement authorities, whereas in the past we believed that it was mainly smugglers and traffickers; yes, they are key perpetrators of violence, but the primary perpetrators of violence are people who are supposed to protect.”
- Medium shot, chairs propped up against table, journalist to rear, seated, Press Room III, Palais des Nations.
- SOUNDBITE (English) — Vincent Cochetel, UNHCR Special Envoy for the Central Mediterranean: “We can consider that an estimate of 72 per cent minimum died overland even before reaching Libya or Morocco or Egypt, their place of initial destination on their journey. That’s a low estimate in our view, in the sense that the number of deaths on land is more or less the same than the number of deaths at sea for 2018/2019.”
- Medium shot, speakers in profile, Press Room III, Palais des Nations.
- SOUNDBITE (English) — Vincent Cochetel, UNHCR Special Envoy for the Central Mediterranean: “We have had no new names of traffickers listed for the last two years, we have not had one single arrest of a UN-sanctioned trafficker over the last two years. So why can’t States do like they do with trafficking of weapons, terrorism or drug trafficking; why don’t we follow the money-flows, why don’t we seriously go after those people and try to combat impunity.”
- Medium shot, journalist in centre of shot, sitting back in chair, holding pen in hand, Press Room III, Palais des Nations.
- SOUNDBITE (English) — Othman Belbeisi, IOM Senior Regional Advisor to the Director General on Middle East and North Africa: “The situation is not only in one country, (the) other side of the Mediterranean has also a big responsibility; you have to understand that countries like Libya which is in conflict, (in) civil war, people are dying, there is huge displacement, is not a safe port, so if we call to return people or to have an idea to bring people back to a country that is not safe, I believe there is a big question about how serious we are to reach a solution.”
- Medium shot, journalist reading report (out of shot) behind a sea of seats, holds pen to mouth, Press Room III, Palais des Nations.
- SOUNDBITE (English) — Vincent Cochetel, UNHCR Special Envoy for the Central Mediterranean: “Access to education is difficult, socio-economic inclusion is inexistent in many countries; access to medical care is not available, we’ve seen it during COVID-19 in many of those transit countries for migrants or for refugees, so there is a lot to be done under this umbrella of inclusion.”
- Wide shot, podium speakers sitting wide apart in Press Room III, Palais des Nations.
- Medium shot, journalists, one typing with one hand on laptop, Press Room III, Palais des Nations.
- Close-up, photographer taking picture, Press Room III, Palais des Nations.
Thousands suffer extreme rights abuses journeying to Africa’s Mediterranean coast: UNHCR, IOM
Thousands of refugees and migrants in eastern and western Africa are dying while others face harrowing abuse in their attempts to reach the continent’s Mediterranean coast in search of a better life, a joint UN/Danish Refugee Council (DRC) report said on Wednesday.
Testimonies published by the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, with the DRC’s Mixed Migration Centre (MMC), reveal random killings, torture, forced labour and beatings.
Other people on the move said they had been burnt with hot oil and melted plastic, while others faced electrocution and being tied in stress positions.
Smugglers and traffickers were key abusers, but so too were State officials, to a surprising extent, Vincent Cochetel, UNHCR Special Envoy for the Central Mediterranean, told journalists at the UN in Geneva.
“In 47 per cent of the case(s), the victims reported the perpetrators of violence are law enforcement authorities, whereas in the past we believed that it was mainly smugglers and traffickers,” he said. “Yes, they are key perpetrators of violence, but the primary perpetrators of violence are people who are supposed to protect.”
Although accurate data is extremely difficult to gather, data suggests that at least 1,750 people died leaving western or eastern African nations en route to countries including Libya, Egypt or Algeria in 2018 and 2019.
This represents more than 70 deaths a month, “making it one of the most deadly routes for refugees and migrants in the world”, UNHCR said in a statement.
Almost three in 10 people died as people attempted to cross the Sahara Desert, according to the UN agency. Other lethal hotspots included locations in southern Libya such as Sabha, Kufra and Qatrun, in addition to the “smuggling hub” of Bani Walid southeast of Tripoli and several places along the west African section of the migrant route including Bamako in Mali and Agadez in Niger.
To date this year, at least 70 people are known to have died, including 30 killed in June by traffickers in Mizdah, southern Libya, whose victims came from Bangladesh and African countries.
In a note accompanying the report, UNHCR noted that overland deaths are in addition to the “thousands who have died or gone missing” in recent years trying to cross the Mediterranean Sea to Europe, usually in vessels unfit to make the crossing.
“We can consider that an estimate of 72 per cent minimum died overland even before reaching Libya or Morocco or Egypt, their place of initial destination on their journey,” Mr. Cochetel said. “That’s a low estimate in our view, in the sense that the number of deaths on land is more or less the same than the number of deaths at sea for 2018/2019.”
Among the report’s findings is clear evidence that Libya is by no means the only place where migrants and refugees face life-threatening dangers.
“Abuse actually is along the route and even sometimes it starts within the country of origin and follows people as they move,” said Othman Belbeisi, IOM Senior Regional Advisor to the Director General on Middle East and North Africa.
“Especially as they are moving at the hands of those smugglers and traffickers. People do not know their locations and they do not have communications, so even if people die or go missing, it’s very difficult to verify or to know where those people get missed.”
Describing the report’s findings as “unacceptable” and calling for action to help vulnerable people on the move, Mr. Cochetel noted that internationally agreed measures to target business and individuals involved in people smuggling had shown limited success.
“We have had no new names of traffickers listed for the last two years, we have not had one single arrest of a UN-sanctioned trafficker over the last two years,” he said. “So why can’t States do like they do with trafficking of weapons, terrorism or drug trafficking; why don’t we follow the money-flows, why don’t we seriously go after those people and try to combat impunity.”
Around 85 per cent of refugees usually stay in the first country where they arrive, the UNHCR Special Envoy insisted, before underscoring the need for investment in countries of origin to provide desperate people with an alternative to having to put their lives in the hands of traffickers.
“Access to education is difficult, socio-economic inclusion is inexistent in many countries,” Mr. Cochetel said. “Access to medical care is not available, we’ve seen it during COVID-19 in many of those transit countries for migrants or for refugees, so there is a lot to be done under this umbrella of inclusion.”
Highlighting the fact that Libya is not safe for refugees and migrants returned from dangerous sea crossing attempts by the Libyan coast guard, IOM’s Othman Belbeisi called for solutions beyond the war-ravaged nation.
“The situation is not only in one country, (the) other side of the Mediterranean has also a big responsibility; you have to understand that countries like Libya which is in conflict, (in) civil war, people are dying, there is huge displacement, is not a safe port, so if we call to return people or to have an idea to bring people back to a country that is not safe, I believe there is a big question about how serious we are to reach a solution.”
Teleprompter
Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen.
Thank you very much for being with us for this panel discussion on the launch of the reports of the human rights abuses on journeys through the Mediterranean.
I will start now by giving the floor to the various panellists that we have with us today.
Here I'm some of our panellists are with us in the room, some others are online and we also have quite a few journalists online.
So we will be working with this hybrid format and I will start by giving the floor to Isla Erin Bonfilio, Mixed Migration Centre Regional Coordinator for North Africa.
You have the floor.
Thank you very much.
Can everyone hear me?
We can.
Wonderful.
Thank you.
As a bit of background, as some of you may know, for MI is the Mixed Migration Centre flagship data collection project on the experiences of refugees and migrants moving along mixed migration routes in several regions around the world, including Latin America and the Caribbean, Asia, Europe and various parts of Africa.
MMC has been implementing for MI in Libya since 2000 and 19 and in East Africa where for MI began since 2014.
At the end of last year in December, we launched for MI in Tunisia and just this past month we piloted data collection in Sudan.
To date, we've collected more than 11,500 surveys with refugees and migrants across North Africa, including more than 3000 surveys on how refugees and migrants are dealing with the impacts of the COVID-19 crisis.
In expanding for MI, we can further expand and deepen our examination of the experiences of people moving along precarious mixed migration routes, including the protection incidents and human rights violations they face, to help informing programming, including the work of UNHCR policy, and to feed into important reports like the one we're discussing today.
In this brief intervention, I'll discuss what the protection environment looks like in 2020 in Libya, both before and after the outbreak of COVID-19, examining refugees and migrants routes, their interactions with smugglers where violations have occurred, and the perpetrators of such violations.
I shall also discuss key findings from a forthcoming report which analyses what makes refugees and migrants more or less vulnerable to protection incidents.
The insights I shall present build on the findings of today's report, which lays out the scale of the protection crisis to begin to understand why some people on the move are more or less vulnerable than others.
Before proceeding to discuss key protection related updates, I'll briefly touch upon the methodology we use to implement for MI, focusing on 4 aspects that should be kept in mind when interpreting the findings of this study.
The first relates to sampling or who we interview.
We interview refugees and migrants for 18 years of age and older, so our results cannot be extended to children on the move who often experience unique protection violations.
We also interview people who have been in country and in the context of Libya, have been in Libya for two years or less.
This is because we are focusing on highly mobile populations and the risks they face and less on well settled or protracted refugee or asylum seeker populations in in Libya.
Given the nature of of legal frameworks in Libya and that a lot of refugees and migrants find themselves in a regular situations, we should think of refugees and migrants in Libya as largely a hidden population.
Which means we don't know what the total population looks like and as a result we cannot sample them in a representative way.
So the findings should be treated with caution and not be extended to to every refugee and migrant who sits in the country.
That being said, it's quite a unique data set that we have and it's one of the few that provides in depth information on on the experiences of refugees and migrants that have been collected directly through interviews with refugees and migrants themselves.
Also unique is the fact that our monitors are refugees and migrants, which gives them unique access to to these communities.
And with the first confirmed cases of COVID-19 and Europe in Europe and North America, MMC as a global network got to work on adapting the for my survey so that we could learn how refugees and migrants were perceiving the virus, the measures they were taking to protect themselves, and how COVID-19 was impacting their livelihoods and their mixed migration journeys.
And to do this, we, we shifted all of our data collection onto a remote system in order to protect both the people that we interview and our monitors.
And I'm happy to speak more about that at any point.
So turning now to look at what has happened since January, before the onset of the COVID-19 crisis, and to to reflect on that in the context of the findings presented in the report.
First, we observed no major changes to smuggling routes between January and March 2020 from those that have been outlined in the study and the majority of movements in Libya and the majority of respondents.
In Libya, 91% of the refugees and migrants we interviewed, which totaled 438 at that time, said they used a smuggler to move.
When asked what was the most dangerous country on your journey, 43% of those surveyed in Libya noted that indeed Libya was the most dangerous country, making it the most cited country by refugees and migrants that we interviewed there.
Other countries that were cited to be the most dangerous along the route include Niger, Algeria, and Mali.
When further queried on where exactly in Libya was the most dangerous, many respondents highlighted various areas of the desert, both on the southeast and Al Kufra and SW borders in Gatrun along to.
Sebha.
Which aligns with the findings of the report.
The main threats in Libya include physical violence, followed by detention, death, robbery and sexual violence.
And this is, this is perceived by refugees and migrants.
We won't spend time on comparing the the statistics between now and and the report because we ask the questions differently now.
And key perpetrators of protection incidents in Libya include armed groups and militias, government officials, border guards, criminal gangs and smugglers.
So now reflecting on on how the COVID-19 pandemic, its broader socioeconomic impacts, and the measures put in place to curb the spread of the virus have impacted people on the move in terms of their roots and mobility.
Our key informants reported in April and May that most of their contacts were waiting for the pandemic to end to make a decision with respect to movement.
And so their mobility was in fact constrained in the shorter term.
But they they highlighted that roots had not fully closed and that people were still arriving at Libya's southern border and moving up to Sub ha.
We also received reports that refugees and migrants faced greater challenges in moving toward the Libyan coast and onward.
Approximately 70% of the 117 respondents that we interviewed just this month in Libya agreed or strongly agreed with the statement that smugglers are using more dangerous routes since the COVID-19 crisis began.
In terms of access to smugglers, 66% of this 117 said that access has been more difficult or much more difficult during the crisis, and only 5 respondents in Libya said access to smugglers was actually easier or much easier.
Key informants also report that smugglers would only accept to talk over the phone, whereas before meeting in person with refugees and migrants was more common.
And finally, in terms of smuggler fees, the majority, 65% have said that smuggler fees have increased since before the outbreak.
Moving on to to issues of protection when asking refugees and migrants in Libya about the impacts of COVID-19 on their daily lives.
And here I'm drawing from a larger data set since March that includes approximately 1200 refugees and migrants.
The majority 60% site reduced access to work.
And in a separate question, just over half report losing their income.
Of note is the fact that women more often cited lost income than men, which may suggest a need for livelihoods or cash.
Programming to target women Half site the reduced availability of basic goods and greater stress and worry, and 14% perceive an increase in racism.
There was the worry that refugees and migrants were being perceived as bringing in the virus when separately asking them about access to healthcare services.
The issue of discrimination resurfaced as the most cited barrier in Libya by nearly half of respondents.
Other concerns expressed in our qualitative data related to issues of housing and shelter, with refugees and migrants expressing fear over being expelled from their housing if they couldn't pay rent and fear of arrest or deportation because of the increased presence of police and military on the streets.
I'll, I'll now turn because time is short on the last module, which which introduces some of the insights of our of our latest research.
So, as mentioned at the start, while the report we're launching today provides us with a sense of the scale of the protection crisis faced by refugees and migrants, particularly in Libya, there is still limited understanding about the factors that determine vulnerability and why certain refugees and migrants are more likely to experience protection abuses.
Using the data presented in today's report, we analysed the demographic, social, and economic determinants of vulnerability to protection incidents, including physical *****, sexual *****, kidnapping, detention, robbery, and witnessing another migrant's death.
In so doing, we tested a number of hypotheses and assumptions that exist in the public and policy discourse, such as that men are more vulnerable or that Christians, by virtue of their minority status, are more vulnerable, and that how you interacted with smugglers and carried cash were factors that impacted refugees and migrants vulnerability.
We found, as the report does, that protection incidents are often multiple and overlapping, so if you find yourself being arbitrarily detained, you might also be subject to physical ***** and forced labour.
We do not have a clear finding regarding religion and our data showed no evidence that Christians are more vulnerable to experiencing protection incidents than Muslims.
Men are more vulnerable compared to women.
However, women were considerably more likely to experience or witness sexual ***** and the reason for for men being more vulnerable on the whole could, for instance, in the case of detention, be related to the fact that detention was linked to to forced labour and so they were commodified.
Younger people were more vulnerable than older people and we found that the timing of smuggler payment matters.
So refugees and migrants who pay their smuggler on arrival at the destination or half on departure and half on arrival are less vulnerable as as compared to those who pay upfront.
This could therefore be a strategy to reduce vulnerabilities along the migration journey as paying upon arrival gives the smuggler an economic incentive to facilitate a safe journey.
Finally, people who work throughout the journey to pay the smugglers seem to be particularly vulnerable and by contrast, those who use digital means of accessing money were less vulnerable.
So the conclusion is therefore that people with secure ways of accessing money are less vulnerable.
This is very fast, so thank you.
Thank you very much for your attention and I I give it back to the Chair.
Thank you, very.
Thank you very much, Mrs Bondfilio, for this extensive presentation of the report.
As you know, the report has been prepared by the Mixed Migration Centre at the Danish Refugee Council, together with the UN Refugee Agency, and we have the pleasure to have with us.
Here.
Mr Vanson Kostel, who is well known to many of our Geneva press and who is the UNHCR Special Envoy for the Central Mediterranean, and I will give him the floor now.
Thank you very much and thank you for inviting us to this press conference.
Thank you to the partner at MMC on IOM for joining us as well as a colleague from the African Commission joining us on this panel.
What is interesting in this report is that the focus of many other reports before were more on risk and ***** in Libya or at sea, but there was not enough data collected on what sort of ***** are taking place along the routes the people are taking.
There was already some good research done by IOM and others, but that report is really building on various sources and and gives a a more complete picture.
From the report, we can consider that an estimate of 72 person minimum died overland even before reaching Libya or Morocco or Egypt their their place of initial destination in their journey.
That's a low estimate in our view, in the sense that the number of deaths on land is more or less the same than the number of deaths at sea for 2018-2019.
But that's just a visible tip of the iceberg.
There are many families looking for their beloved ones along the routes and there is no answer to give them.
So we believe actually the number of people dying overland is much more higher than the number of people dying at sea.
One statistic that is quite interesting in the report is also about what Ayla said, the perpetrators of physical violence.
And in 47% of the case, the victims reported the perpetrators of violence are law enforcement authorities, whereas in the past we we believe that it was mainly smugglers and traffickers.
Yet yes, they are key perpetrators of violence.
But the primary perpetrators of violence are people who are supposed to protect.
So when we say nothing can be done, well know something can be done.
States have responsibility that they need to discharge in that.
In that respect, of course, we need to prevent irregular dangerous journeys when we know what's awaiting people in Libya.
Well, nobody should be forced to go to Libya.
So everything we can do to prevent people through smart programming to go to Libya, we should try, we should attempt, and we should do much more.
But then to say what I'm hearing from time to time, well, the people you know at what they deserve, they knew the risk and they think they would be more lucky or more clever or that they are the better trafficker.
I mean, it's not the answer.
I mean, first answer must be with compassion.
I'm not getting used to read those cheating testimonies on those dark statistics that are in the report.
This is unacceptable on the report after report.
We should not get used to this new norm of of indifference or this new treasure of tolerance of something that should not be tolerated.
The majority of migrants, the majority of refugees normally stay in the first country where they arrive, which is normally your neighbouring country to the country of origin.
About 85% of them stay in that country.
And it's only about 15% of people that move onward towards other direction, not always to the north, sometimes to the South.
And those people are not criminal if they make the choice of moving from the first country of arrival to another country.
It's not by fun, it's not for reasons of personal convenience.
They are complex drivers behind those movements and we need to address them.
But we don't address them by punishing victims.
We address them by designing smart programmes that address their needs on looking at alternative ways to provide them with a dignified treatment where they are implementing, in particular the two Global compact.
So what I'd like us to do is really to feel that to combat that feeling of powerlessness, there are things that can be done to address some of the gaps that are in the report.
I will name a few very quickly.
First for humanitarian agency, because it's always easy to recommend to others what to do, but I think we have also to be critical of ourself and see what we can do better.
Well, we certainly need to better identify victim of trafficking, provide them much more comprehensive services, improve referral mechanism, sometime cross-border work.
We need to assist victims to get access to justice.
We need to improve two ways, communication with people on the move, not just the information we want to give them, but we need to listen to them because otherwise they don't trust us.
They trust the smugglers, they trust the diaspora, They are not going to trust trust us.
We have very little to offer them.
So I think we need to be critical of what we are doing in key transit countries somewhere name like Algeria, like Niger, like Mali, like Sudan.
Let's let's observe that then for the international community, well, they need to better finance, yes, we have to talk about money finance programme that stabilise with credible options people in the country where they are.
Access to education is difficult.
Socio economic inclusion in an is in existent in many country.
Access to medical care is not available.
We've seen it during COVID-19 in many of those transit countries for migrants or for refugees.
So there is a lot to be done there.
Under this umbrella of inclusion, two states have to take more seriously their responsibility to combat trafficking.
There is no shortage of talkings.
You have heard all European leaders and some African leaders recently also saying, yeah, let's defeat together the business model of traffickers.
Well, let's do it, Just do it.
Don't talk about it.
Cooperate, share data, build pilot project on what exists, on what works.
Trust the African partners to do a better job.
We've seen some good example in Nigeria, we've seen some progress in Sudan, certainly some progress in Ethiopia.
Let's build on that.
For European partners, you need to invest in the capacity building of agencies dealing with victims of trafficking to provide them decent services, access to justice and unsure the effective prosecution of traffickers.
I'm quite concerned to see.
That the tree international mechanism established under the UN auspices by states to combat trafficking.
So we have special rapporteurs procedure with a sanction committee regime on Mali, on Sudan, on Libya.
We have had no new names of trafficker listed for the last two years.
We have not had one single arrest of Aun sanctioned trafficker over the last two years, so why can't state do like they do with trafficking of weapon terrorism or drug trafficking?
Why don't we follow the money flows?
Why don't we seriously go after those people and try to combat impunity?
Because as long as we don't do that, it is just talking and talking will not do anything good for the people who are going to be abused on those routes.
So we we are a bit tired to write those reports after reports only on the same complaint on the same victims.
You can read some of the testimonies that are in the report.
This is unacceptable, totally unacceptable.
I'm pleased to have Otman here on the on the panel today was the chief of mission for IOMB 4IN Libya was the first one to have the courage to talk about slave markets in Libya.
It's not just in Libya, the slave market, we had had ***** of people in ******* for months in warehouses in in in really abusive condition on both through the East African route on the West African route.
This is an acceptable states today with this report with other reports from IOM cannot say we didn't know.
They know what they can do and we need to use existing processes much more effectively to combat human trafficking.
Thank you very much.
Thank you very much, Mr Kirstell.
And I think your call for action from States and from the international community leads us straight to the next speaker, who is Professor Maya Salih Fadel, African Union Commissioner and Special Rapporteur on refugees, asylum seekers, internally displaced persons and migrants in Africa.
I understand, Madam, you're dealing in online from Algeria to tell us a little bit more about what's being done by governments and regional bodies.
What are the challenges and the support you need?
You have the floor.
Mercy.
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She has to allow some time for translation.
Are you OK with that?
Where's Charlie?
What is the interpretation?
We don't have it in.
It's in there.
OK, so then I will have to ask the interpreter if the pace is good.
Yes, I'm going, I took note and I'm going to read to you what she said now.
But Mrs Sally said thank you and I would like to thank everyone for the invitation.
And I would also like you to thank you for this interesting report on the violation of migrants and asylum seekers rights, more particularly in Libya.
Now as far as in my capacity, I would like to talk to you about the actions that are being undertaken by governments but also by regions as organised by the African Union.
Now, as far as governments are concerned, the questions that we commonly ask them is we ask government to adopt what we call national migration and strategies.
Now there are two elements to that and the first element is that those governments have to adopt the national strategy, but we've got also governments that already have the national action plans or strategies and those that are ongoing or still working on them.
Now for the second element, we are in a process of advocacy, especially towards Sahel countries and we split those countries by countries of origin, countries of transit and countries of destination.
Now most work has to be done for the countries of transit and destination, although for countries of origin we have to understand the deep reasons behind those migration flows.
Is it only because of the conflicts?
It can be because of the poor governance?
Is it because of poverty?
Is it because of climate change?
So, we have to understand those processes for us to be able to address this issue, but more particularly, of course for Western Africa and Eastern African region where the journey for migrants is quite challenging.
However, for the other governments, we endeavour to encourage them to engage into what we call a consultation process for them to have action plans that address trafficking in persons and migration and the smuggling of migrants process and therefore they have to, we have to, they have to create what we are, what we call the interdepartmental committee.
We have that interdepartmental committee for us to be able to address questions concerning the trafficking in persons and trafficking of migrants.
We also called states.
And we have called upon governments and to engage their responsibility and liability into not only identifying but also to protect and comply with the rights of migrants.
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And that is why we have called upon governments to comply with their responsibilities in terms of protecting those migrants from being subjected to different forms of human rights violation.
And when we talk about human rights violations, they can go from xenophobia, from discrimination, homicide, *****, torture, different types of mistreatments, forced and unpaid labour, sexual exploitation, slavery and no access to justice, being separated from their families, no access to education and healthcare.
And the impact is mostly felt when it's against the vulnerable categories such as women, children and even people with a disability who have to engage into the migration flow journey, which is why we have called upon the government to comply with their the requirement of protecting those migrants.
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And actually, as we have discussed this question, the issue in now is to be able to identify what we call sustainable solutions.
And when we say sustainable solutions, it mostly is about the countries of transit, because countries of transit can also become countries of destination.
And when we talk about sustainable solutions, it's mostly about a settling those migrants in those countries for them not to be able to reach Libya where those human rights violations are even more acute.
So now when we talk about, I would like to talk about the role of regional and other organisations like the African Union.
Now in the African Union we have discussed what we think are solutions that have to be implemented and we are encouraging all the governments to undertake and to adopt policies that analyse the prevention of such challenges.
So all those solutions have to be sustainable and they require coordination between the African Union, between the governments, but also with the regional economic communities.
So when we talk about action plans, it's at 3 levels at the continental, at this, at the national, regional and subcontinental levels.
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In the African Union, as you know, we have adopted in 2018 what we call the migration policy framework that addresses not only the concerns that were subject of the your report but other reports, but also addresses other concerns related to migration issues, linking them directly to development issues.
It is being supported by an action plan and the action plan that is derived from the migration policy framework is being implemented as we speak.
There was also another action that was undertaken which is the creation of the Khartoum Centre against the Trafficking in Persons and the Smuggling of migrants.
And in that framework we have asked the the African Union sub technical committees to engage in discussions that link directly the government with the regional economic communities in order to sorry, undertake an exchange of good, good practises in terms of trafficking in persons and the smuggling of migrants, but also all new forms of slavery.
So we are asking them to exchange good practises and discuss the relevant elements of fighting, trafficking in persons and the smuggling of migrants.
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News adopted and resolution.
Situation security.
I.
And I would like to talk to you now about my personal work in my capacity of African Commissioner for the Human and People's Rights, a Special Rapporteur, focusing on the issues of migration and asylum seekers and refugees in Africa.
Now, what we are doing so far is we have been calling upon governments in order to review the situation of human rights violations against migrants and asylum seekers in the our relevant regions.
There has been a considerable number of resolutions that have been adopted on the faith, in particular of migrants in the Mediterranean region.
And when we talk about this region, of course, that focuses on Libya, we were supposed to undertake a mission taking us to Libya in order to review the situation of human rights violations against migrants in Libya.
But of course, for security considerations, we were unable to go into those centres where we were supposed to visit those refugees and speak to them in order to have their views and have a more narrow image of what is happening on to those migrants.
Now, another piece of work we have undertaken is the study with the Danish Human Rights Institute, and the study focuses on the case of migrants from the share.
And actually, if you see that study and you read it, you will see that a lot of the ideas on the analysis analysis story found in the report of that study match those that were found in today's report.
I would like to thank you for your attention.
Thank you very much.
Merci Boku Madame Salif Adel Purser remark on about sorry, switch back to English.
We've heard a lot.
Of course, not just about refugees, but also migrants, and this gives me the opportunity to introduce our last speaker before we conclude, Mr Ottman Bebeisi, who is the Senior Regional Advisor to the to the Director General of the International Organisation for Migration on Middle East and North Africa.
And I give him the floor now, Sir.
OK, Thank you very much for giving me the opportunity to be here today.
And I would like to thank you, NHCR and MMC for this very informative report.
The report produced a clear evidence on the abuses faced by people on the move across the route.
So in different parts of their journey, and I believe most of the times we tended to focus on some countries and forgetting about the others.
While we realise that ***** actually is along the route and even sometimes it starts within the country of origin and follows people as they move, especially that they are moving on the hands of those smugglers and traffickers.
People do not do not know their locations and they do not have communication.
So even if people die or go missing, it's very difficult to verify or to know where where those people got missed.
Also, this is an issue that I believe is very well known to all of us and many of people in the room and online with us have written about in the past few years.
But unfortunately, people are still dying and facing abuses and human rights violations.
Definitely there is a need for such reports and we need to continue and I would encourage all agencies to continue producing such reports, documenting the violations and the discrimination people on the move are facing and hoping that this will also trigger a more policy response.
I would say media have played an important role in this issue, bringing this issue to the surface and shedding a lot of light and also calling for action which I believe have succeeded to an extent.
But what we have seen also that the story scheme keeps going up and down.
So depending on on the news or depending if there is something that can really go on the news while we know that people are dying every day.
So we would appreciate continuing advocacy that will also support the work of agencies and governments and make sure that we all remember those people who are subject to violations and *****.
Some of them are still under those conditions as we speak now.
So it's very important and it's a joint responsibility.
It is also important to acknowledge a number of good initiatives that have taken place so far from the in the last few years.
Some of them are initiatives at the continental level, so some within Africa, some within Europe.
We've seen some reforms, we've seen a lot of initiatives.
We also have seen the African Union, European Union and the UN task force that provided some recommendations, but that led to some improvements.
But unfortunately, definitely it did not end those abuses we are seeing.
Also, as many speakers talked about, many countries are taking very good initiatives and also continental and and at the subcontinental level.
So this all should continue.
But for all of us, we should also make sure that we have a whole of government approach when we address this issue of people on the move.
When we talk about refugees, asylum seekers or migrants, it's not only the responsibility of one ministry or it's not to be addressed from the policing point of view on how to keep people out or focusing only on the status of people.
It's an in depth inter ministerial issue because this influence and affect the country at all levels and affect the migrants at all levels.
So this is a very important part that we need, we need to focus on.
Also, we need to be realistic on what we can expect from some countries.
For example, in the last few years we've seen a lot about Libya and I believe the requests were right and valid.
But we have to keep in mind that also the situation is not only in one country, other side of the Mediterranean have also a big responsibility.
We have to understand that countries like Libya, who is in conflict, civil war, people are dying, there's a huge displacement, is not a safe port.
So if we call to return people or to have any deal to bring people back to a country that is not safe, I believe there is a big question about how serious we are to reach a solution.
We have to make sure that the business model of those smugglers and traffickers is dismantled.
And I believe everybody talked about that.
We have seen very little.
We we know that there is a lot of investigation, there is a lot of reports and many people are working on that.
But we would love to see progress.
It will encourage people when they see that those smugglers are brought to justice, especially the well known one who have committed serious violations and they are documented.
We understand very well that the process is very lengthy.
It can take years, but unfortunately what we see now that refugees and migrants are in detention and smugglers are free.
So this is something I believe should stop at a certain point.
We also have to ensure the protection of migrants and refugees along the route, especially during the time of pandemic that is affecting the world.
And you can also imagine, even if we assume that services are available in the country and will include irregular migrants or asylum seekers, people will will not be willing to come forward again being worried about being caught and detained.
So this adds to the vulnerability and the situation people face.
It is important also that all of us know that it is a global responsibility, not the responsibility of a country or the responsibility of a continent.
And even I would, I would say it's not only because we focus on African Union, European Union, but this is more of a global responsibility because also same practises we find in different routes in different parts of the world.
So it is very important if we want to achieve, to achieve results that we understand that it's a joint responsibility.
And I believe that the upcoming African Union, European Union summit planned in October would be a very a good opportunity to, to evaluate what's what has been done and also also think of what can be done in the future to improve the situation as we still see people dying.
Also, we, we, we don't have to forget the pressure people are facing because they are under pressure during the journey from the smugglers.
They are under pressure from the family because they were trusted that they will make the journey and then support the family or even support other people to start with the journey.
They are afraid of going back because first they left for a reason at the very beginning that most likely did not change.
Also, they will be on debt.
So they continue being under ***** and fear and they don't have any future perspective, especially if we talk about possible solutions.
Resettlement numbers are low returns.
In order to return, it's a very difficult decision and you have to to consider many options.
So you need at least work and services back home.
And also if you talk about local inclusion or integration, it is very important to understand that countries are opposing this a lot and this is one of the challenge being faced by the agencies, the opposition of countries for integration of of migrants.
If there is just time, I would like to speak for two minutes about the missing migrants project because I have been asked to just speak briefly about the missing migrants project.
So why data is collected on the numbers or the missing migrants?
Mainly for advocacy.
So, being a witness on people's deaths and documenting that failure to investigate the fate of missing contributes to the exploitation of migrants and xenophobic trends.
So we have to make sure that those numbers are captured.
From policy point of view.
It helped to understand the scale of the phenomena and the number of deaths.
It also help us to find better ways to measure and document an unsafe migration.
Better quality data on all aspects of migration and the deaths which occurred during the migration will be essential to improve an evidence base on this for for operational planning.
Also, if we know the places and the routes and the numbers of deaths, it will help us to, to, to have better programmes addressing this issue.
Just very important to explain the definition of this project because it includes a number of of people, also excludes a number of people.
So it excludes the death that occur in immigration detention facilities or during deportation or after forced return to a country of origin.
Also migrants who go missing, missing after they are established at the country of destination.
So it's more of a project that looks and to those people on the move that nobody knows about and exclude the numbers that are available in countries.
So we acknowledge that there is a big gap also.
So the numbers of missing people reporting under this project exclude a large number of people under the criteria I just mentioned in addition to others.
On the other hand, those are the deaths that reported or the bodies that we could or could be recovered.
So which means we we believe that the numbers are definitely much bigger.
And maybe for the sake of time I will just not go into numbers because you will find them definitely online.
But just the last point on the sources of data, it is definitely from official data.
So from governments and available sources, testimonies of survivors, NGOs, media reports and reports also of other agencies, including also UNSCR and MMC.
Just a couple of recommendations.
We have to make sure that the issue of death of disappearance is treated as a priority because sometimes we see it's becoming a norm and we are only reporting numbers.
Improve the state capacity to properly register and identify the remains because we see many bodies buried without any identification and it will be impossible to to find out who those people are.
So you can imagine what will happen to a family that doesn't know anything about a member who went missing for five, 6-7 years and you don't know what to do.
Taking steps towards standard standardising, centralising and making public data on migrant fatalities.
And the very important part is to stop treating deaths and disappearance as an assumed risk.
So it's not an assumed risk of a regular journey because sometimes we see reports people talking about, yes, if you travel irregularly, you are subject to death.
I don't think this this can be normal or acceptable.
So we have to be careful with the with the language we use and definitely promote survey based data collection, empower families of the missing people because they need a lot of support and they will be an important source of information.
So thank you, thank you very much for this opportunity and I believe this report can be a very important step to move forward.
And I would again remind the media that we always need your help to make this issue on the surface and remind States of their responsibility.
Thank you.
Thank you very much Mr Berberisi with the International Organisation for Migration.
I say it correctly this time.
And I now turn to my left to Mr Brom Fraus, who's the head of the Mixed Migration Centre, for some wrap up comments.
Thank you very much, Alessandra.
Yeah, I'll keep it very short, just some comments to wrap up.
I'm not going to try and summarise with all the other panellists set, but just to take the opportunity to thank all the other panellists for their excellent presentations.
Also to thank the members of the media who are present here with us in this room and online for this, their interest in this important story.
And first and foremost, let me also thank all the migrants we've interviewed.
We've interviewed 16,000 people over those two years who've taken the time to share their stories with us, often very traumatic stories.
And without their stories, we would not have been able to produce a report like this.
It's sometimes easy to forget if you read a report like this and you read all the statistics, behind all those statistics, there are the individual human stories of men, women and children.
That said, this kind of data, reliable data, compelling evidence on the scale of these violations, where these violations are happening, who the perpetrators are.
Also stressing the the importance of looking at the whole route, not at a single country.
Some of the other panellists said as well is important.
It is an important first step towards action.
That said, we we should also ask ourselves the question, did we even need another report like this?
Some of the other panellists also alluded to that.
This is not the first report outlining all these abuses and sadly I'm afraid it won't be the last, but it should be the last and I sincerely hope we won't sit here again in a year time from now and present yet another report with all these statistics on this incredible level and unacceptable level of abuses as refugees and migrants are facing all along the routes towards North Africa.
It is really unacceptable.
I think there is a very clear set of recommendations, very good recommendations in this report that I really hope that the international community, international organisations, states will take on board to try and and change the situation.
Of course there is an, there is an understanding, there is a that there is a need to control irregular migration, there's a need for migration management.
But I think what we are currently seeing is clearly unacceptable.
We've seen the incidents also happening yesterday.
Also to stress to this report is presenting data from from two years ago from 2018-2019, but we heard Ilat talking in the beginning.
Nothing has changed in a way.
And yesterday we've seen that three people were shot dead upon disembarkation in Libya.
I don't think we needed much more evidence that Libya is not a safe place to return to people too.
But I think the incident yesterday made it once again very clear that people should not be returned to Libya because we know what will happen to many of them upon this embarkation, ending up in detention centres, facing all the violence that is documented in this in this report.
I think one very important aspect of this report, also stressed by some of the other panellists, is the need to hold the perpetrators of these violations to account, to make sure that the victims feel safe, to share information on who these perpetrators are so that they can be prosecuted and brought to justice.
I think this is a crucial, crucial element.
It's not only the smugglers, of course.
We also focus a lot on the crimes that are committed by smugglers in some cases, some countries, and for some types of *****, we see they they are the main perpetrators of violence.
But as Vincent Cushtel also said, to a large extent, we also see that state officials are the perpetrators of violence.
So when we say people who commit these violations should be brought to justice, I think that should include not only the smugglers, but also the state officials committing these these violations.
I think ultimately what we're still seeing too much when dealing with these type of, of migration and refugee flows is, is piece meal solutions or not even solutions, but ad hoc actions try to contain those flows.
I think it's, it's very clear that there's a need for more humane and and smarter ways of dealing with migration that will lead to far less human suffering that will help to uphold our principles and moral values.
Also as the European Union, I think it's possible.
It needs, it requires more courage and more leadership.
But I think what this report once again, and it's not the first, as I said, once again makes very clear is that it's unacceptable and these, this skill and this level of ***** and violations towards refugees and margants has to stop.
And I think this report really includes a very clear call for action for everybody involved.
Thank you.
Thank you very much for this wrap up comments.
And that gives me also the opportunity to remind our friend, journalist that tomorrow, 30th of July, it's World Day against trafficking in person.
And every year the international community comes together and speak about these crimes.
And as you said, it would be good if next year we won't be here to talk about that.
Charlie, you have the final comments, Charlie Yaxley, spokesperson of HCR, and then we will go to the question and answers.
Thank you, Alessandro.
I'll be very brief as I want to give as much time as possible for the the Q&A.
The **** Commissioner for Refugees, Philip Grandi, described these deaths and abuses as a collective stain on our conscience that we cannot afford to ignore.
As Bram mentioned, the the deaths that happened in the recent disembarkation in Libya are a timely reminder of the the horrific ***** that refugees and migrants are often facing on these routes.
But Despite that, much of the attention is often focused on what's happening at sea.
But as this report shows, it's strongly suggests that more deaths are happening on these land routes, despite them getting relatively little attention.
And for those who do survive, they feel it better, suffering severe human rights abuses.
But when we read these accounts and testimonies, and this is not the first report that has produced these things, it is crucial that we don't indulge in feelings of hopelessness and, and the reaction of, well, that this situation is awful.
But there's nothing that that can be done with this report.
We now have some data that shows what abuses are happening, where the abuses are taking place and who are the perpetrators of these abuses, and we do have examples of good practise.
There have been steps forward that are now working.
They can be used to build on as a foundation in order to to have collective action with strong leadership to dismantle the smuggling and trafficking networks.
As has been mentioned, the sanctions committees have been able to identify some smugglers and traffickers, but there are many more there.
We can look into the freezing of financial assets and limiting the actions of of these smugglers and traffickers, and then when they do travel, when they do come into the jurisdiction of legal authorities to then make those arrests.
At the same time the the report does abuses by state officials.
So where they are taking place, it's crucial that states do properly investigate those allegations, that the perpetrators are then held to account, but also that there is adequate protection in place for witnesses and victims so that they feel confident that they will not then suffer the repercussions of doing so.
Finally, just to reiterate the importance of, of addressing the root causes of why people move by the time people reach Libya or or try to attempt the sea journey, this is really a, a final staging post on, on a journey that for many, we have many months or even years before we need to look at addressing the, the conflicts and, and violence that is taking place across the Sahel that is forcing people to, to flee their homes and look at the countries of transit and asylum and how we can support them so that refugees feel adequately protected and, and safe.
So they don't feel so desperate that they prefer to, to roll the dice and put their hands in, in, in their lives in the hands of smugglers and traffickers.
I will, I will finish there.
But lastly, I would like to thank our colleagues in producing this report at the Mixed Migration Centre, our panellists for for today, and also to you and Geneva for helping us with this press conference.
Thank you very much.
Charlie and I have on my screen a first request for the floor by Lisa Schleim, who is our accredited correspondent from Voice of America.
Lisa, you have the floor for your question.
Thank you, Alessandra.
Yes, and hello to everybody.
I have a.
Few questions, mainly of clarification.
I will try to be brief on all of this.
First, if you're talking about *****, and I'd like to have more of a picture of that, could you describe in more precise detail the kinds of ***** and violations that refugees and migrants suffer along?
The migratory route and then a a figure of at least 72 deaths you you have you have found that out are are those deaths in the years 2018 and 19.
I wasn't clear on when they occurred and then specifically to Ayala Erin Bonfilio, I hope I.
Pronounced your name correctly.
You were talking about the situation since the COVID-19 pandemic.
Has struck us all.
And you said that smugglers now are taking more dangerous routes than before.
If you could elaborate upon that.
I mean, it's how much more dangerous can they be than what happened before?
And you also said that the their fees have gone up.
So what were the fees before and what are they now?
And thank you very much.
Thank you very much.
I don't know who would like to start answering.
Maybe Isla on the on the issue of the details about the abuses or rum, I don't know.
Isla.
Yeah, Isla.
OK.
I'll give you the floor then.
Thank you.
Thank you so much for your questions, Lisa.
So in terms of precise details on abuses, these include physical *****, severe physical *****, sexual violence, kidnapping, kidnapping for ransom, detention or arbitrary detention, extortion.
Those are and of course, witnessing another migrant's death.
Your question about some of the information we talked about since the the pandemic elaborate more on what we mean by the fact that roots have become more dangerous.
This really differs depending on who we speak to in Libya and, and to some extent Tunisia as well.
But often it means that already much of these journeys are conducted in a in an unauthorised and and clandestine way.
So it's a function of smugglers finding alternative routes, taking greater risks.
It seems difficult to imagine something more risky than it is now.
But there are parts of the risk where there are parts of the journey where refugees and migrants can move relatively freely.
And so their interactions with smugglers more are about transportation or attaining certain documentation.
And now we're seeing it's how do, how do refugees and migrants or how do smugglers help them get past curfews, internal movement restrictions where they had none before and and hard border closures because of COVID in terms of the fees, what they were before versus now again, this, this varies.
And so it's hard to provide one number before and after because what we have seen are fees that range anywhere from from several hundred U.S.
dollars to I think in the report, it's cited at one time 11 respondent sites 8000.
It depends on, on where refugees and migrants are originating from, whether they're paying different smugglers at different stages along the routes, the currencies that they're paying in.
We, we often hear reports that refugees and migrants from East African origin countries are charged higher fees because they're seeing as being more connected to well established diaspora networks in Europe and farther afield.
And they're more likely to to carry dollars than francs.
And so the the fees that they're charged are higher.
But this is just one one example.
I'll pass it to the other panellists for the remaining questions.
Thank you.
Pencil yeah, very quickly the the data of 72 deaths per month for the year of 2018-2019.
So yes, it's based on the on the number of days we could verify with MMC, we had to philtre out a lot of info, information that could not be verified.
We had only one source.
We had no other credible accounts.
So we, we decided to disregard a lot of informations.
We, we only kept for the report what could be verified on.
Based on that we we come up with that total of seven, an estimate of 72 deaths per month for the last two years and that's the same for 2020 over.
You would like to add anything anybody else would like to add any detail?
No, I don't see any.
So I'll yes, sorry.
OK.
Are you on just say?
I would say just very quickly.
Also in addition to the abuses, say migrants on the refugees face confiscation of any assets they would have from money, mobile phones.
So it is not safe for them to carry to carry anything with them during the journey.
And also the malnutrition, since they are always provided with one meal a day.
And also this meal does not include any protein, which is also very important on the numbers.
I believe that Vincent explained that.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
So I'm looking now to other hands up from the journalist.
Any other question from the journalist attending the the presser?
I can't see any.
Let me give you a few seconds more.
Yes, there is a question now from the Tagus Titung.
Yes, thank you very much.
My name is Simona Schlindwein.
I'm the Africa correspondent of the German daily newspaper targets Title.
My question is regarding the the perpetrators as the state officials as it's mentioned.
In the report, is this the long?
Term consequence of many training activities the European Union and Frontex especially undertook in the Sahel region and in West and East Africa to to strengthen the capacities of the local security agencies which become in the end then not the people to protect, but the people who turning into perpetrators.
Is that something which you would, which you would like amplify into these teases that these perpetrators are more the state officials than actually the smugglers in some countries?
Thank you very much.
Thank you.
I don't know if Bram or Vincent, would you like to take this up?
Go ahead.
Yeah.
The European Union is having some training mission.
If I'm not mistaken, there are two in the in the sale, one in Mali and on the one in in Nigeria.
Obviously we will address those recommendation to the European Union to make sure that the forces they train do not get involved in to all those abuses.
But we've seen recently several reports suggesting that, you know, law enforcement agencies in the in the sale region are also responsible for human rights violation against their own population.
So that's a general issue about human rights compliance on accountability in terms of for the perpetrators of those act of violence to face justice.
I think the pressure has been raised by a number of states vis A vis the G5 cell countries.
We'd like to see a similar I think demarche being made in, in many other transit countries where those ***** are are taking place.
Names are available, patterns are known.
I think in the report you have very precise maps where deaths are occurring.
And so there is room for states to to try to tackle the problem.
Any other inputs, Brown?
Yeah, just very briefly on that question from from Simone.
I mean, we, based on the report, the data we collect, we don't have evidence that those people who have received those trainings from the European Union are actually the ones committing those those violations.
I think that evidence would be, I mean, at least for us, really difficult to get.
Of course, this is, as Vincent Kristell said, real concern.
It's not the first report again highlighting this.
Whether that means it requires more and better training or whether those training programmes programmes should not take place is is hard to say.
I think what it clearly shows is that there is a need when, when those training programmes take place, there's a very, very strong focus on adherence to to human rights standards.
Thank you very much and also Madam Salif Fidel senior Siela Sinon.
I'm going to also again look at our list of journalists.
Is there any other questions for other panel for our panellists from the accredited journalist?
I'm looking at the list.
I don't see any hand up for the moment.
So if this is the case, I'll give you a couple of more seconds.
But no, I don't see any hand up.
So if this is the case, I would like to maybe conclude this press conference.
I would like to thank very, very much our speakers and the outcome of their work, this incredible report on this journey.
No one cares if you leave or die.
*****, protection and justice along routes between East and West Africa and Africa's Mediterranean coast.
And as I said, it's very topical because of tomorrow's commemoration of the World Day Against Trafficking in Persons.
So I hope you will have the possibility to cover extensively this report.
I thank all our speakers and wish you a very good day.
Thank you.