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Issues in Focus
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In the two year period 2006-2007, UNHCR has estimated that more than 110,200 boat people have reached European shores1 in small fishing boats, while an additional 58,500 have reached shore in Yemen, where many migrants reportedly then continue on to European Union (EU) Member States in search of greater safety or opportunity. For many, the migration trajectory begins long before embarking on a boat, and the proliferation of smugglers and human traffickers at virtually every point of transit, as well as increased border enforcement by European border authorities including FRONTEX, have resulted in increasingly perilous migration experiences.
Having seen thousands of Somalis and Ethiopians pass through his diocese with the hope of surviving the perilous boat trip across the Gulf of Aden to Yemen, ICMC member Mgr. Giorgio Bertin, Bishop of Djibouti and Apostolic Adminstrator of Mogadishu, along with ICMC members and partners in Europe, Australia and the Americas, have witnessed the human cost of this migration first hand, reminding us that, while some of those involved in mixed migration flows are traditional asylum seekers, many are not; and yet, regardless of their legal status, men, women, and children are falling victim to violence or trauma, being stabbed, shot, starved or thirsted to near-death, raped, injected with drugs, doused with chemicals, abandoned en route or thrown overboard to drown, largely at the hands of human traffickers and smugglers. Others have been gravely traumatized by having witnessed these atrocities. Deaths and disappearances on boat crossings alone have reportedly increased from levels 1 out of 30 to 1 out of 20 in just the past year 2.
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ICMC's work with members and NGO partners in Southern Europe as well as Northen Africa indicated that important protection and assistance gaps exist in reception and care services for these victims in countries of transit, arrival and return, including greater psycho-social support, medical attention, recovery assistance and/or other kinds of protection. Since leading the drafting and presentation of the joint NGO statement presented on this subject to the UNHCR Standing Committee in June 2007 and Bishop Bertin's address to UN leaders and the international community in Geneva in September 2007, ICMC has held high-level discussions on how such operational responses and related standards might be developed directly with UNHCR, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, the International Organization for Migration (IOM), the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) and State actors, as well as non-governmental organizations.
Recognizing the inherent value, and indeed necessity, of drawing upon the expertise and first-hand experience of NGOs and ICMC members working with this vulnerable population, the International Catholic Migration Commission is urgently calling for the strengthened capacity of NGOs, local authorities and policy-makers to protect migrant rights and actively contribute to the development of comprehensive standards on the reception of migrant victims of violence or trauma in embarkation, post-rescue/post-arrival and readmission settings.
Calling for Improved Responses to Victims of Violence or Trauma in Border Crossings
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1.These statistics include only arrivals to Greece, Italy, Malta and the Canary Islands during 2006 – 2007 and do not include the more than 10,000 people who have reportedly died or disappeared during the crossings.
2.UNHCR
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