Foreign

Home page

Foreign

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon issues message on International Migrants Day

17 December 2008 12:25 (UTC +04:00)

Baku. Ilhama Isabalayeva â€“ APA. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon issued a message on the occasion of December 18 - the International Migrants Day, UN office in Azerbaijan told APA. The message says that the worldâ€™s more than 200 million migrants are especially vulnerable to the financial downturn shaking the global economy. Moreover, migration policies are growing ever more restrictive.
â€œWe continue to see the criminalization of irregular migrants. And all too often, migrants are being dealt with primarily from the perspective of security. There is a growing tendency in many parts of the world to subject them to mandatory or prolonged detention even though human rights law says that detention should be the exception, not the rule,â€ the message says.
â€œTo save migrants from abuse, and allow them to contribute to development in their home and receiving countries, we must acknowledge them as human beings whose rights, like those of everyone else, must be protected. I urge all member States to become parties to the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of all Migrant Workers and Members of their Families, which is the most comprehensive international framework on this issue,â€ Ban Ki-moon said.