Stranded migrants need dignified return: UN body
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Stranded migrants need dignified return: UN body

Host, transit countries urged to strictly protect their human rights
Stranded migrants need dignified return: UN body
Major media reported in early September that thousands of African migrant workers are locked in cramped and unhygienic camps in Saudi Arabia


The UN Committee on Migrant Workers has called on governments to take immediate action to address the inhumane conditions of migrant workers stranded in detention camps and ensure their orderly, safe and dignified return to their home countries.

“Migrants, mostly from African and South Asian countries, are regularly scapegoated for the spread of the coronavirus. There’re reports of ill-treatment and even torture every single day in detention camps, with allegations that inmates don’t receive medical treatment. Some are even left to die,” the Committee said.

It raised deep concerns over the situation of migrant workers, especially those detained in Gulf countries, including Saudi Arabia and Yemen, and in North African countries such as Libya, according to a statement issued from Geneva on Thursday.

Also read: Work of HR treaty bodies at risk: UN Committee Chairs

“We urge the governments of host and transit countries to strictly protect the human rights of all migrants and cooperate without delay with the countries of origin to ensure an orderly, safe and dignified return of stranded migrants into their home countries," said the committee.

Major media reported in early September that thousands of African migrant workers are locked in cramped and unhygienic camps in Saudi Arabia.

Video images showing detained migrant workers sleeping and eating in facilities with raw sewage spilling across the floor are evidence of the shocking conditions that require immediate action from the international community, the Committee stressed.

“The Covid-19 pandemic is currently wreaking havoc all over the world. In many countries, the death toll is rising, health systems are under challenge, and unemployment rates are unprecedentedly high. While governments try their utmost to control the most significant health disaster since 1918, they have to be aware of the fact that this pandemic makes migrant workers who have no access to clean water, sanity and health care far more vulnerable than local residents,” the Committee said.

As the Covid-19 pandemic continues, the Committee stressed: “It’s more important than ever that human rights violations perpetrated against migrants must immediately stop.”

The Committee recalled the Joint Guidance Note on the Impacts of the Covid-19 Pandemic on the Human Rights of Migrants.

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