GENEVA – States must urgently step up efforts to prevent the disappearance including enforced disappearance of migrants, a UN expert told the Human Rights Council today.
“The disappearance of migrants, refugees and asylum seekers is a largely neglected human rights challenge,” said Gehad Madi, the Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants, in his report to the 59th Session of the Council.
Countries of origin, transit and destination have a collective responsibility to establish effective mechanisms of cooperation to prevent such disappearances, and if they occur, to investigate them and, where appropriate, hold perpetrators accountable,” Madi said.
Factors that led to migrants disappearing or becoming victims of abductions include harsh geographical conditions along remote migration routes, where access to humanitarian assistance is limited or non-existent, the Special Rapporteur said.
Immigration detention or deportation procedures, including under agreements with third countries where the applicable procedural safeguards are not respected also increases this risk, the report said.
Systematic family separation at international borders and in detention, as well as collective expulsions without individual assessment of protection needs, known as pushbacks, also heighten the risks of disappearance.
“The delays and failures to conduct search and rescue operations for migrants in distress continue to lead to numerous cases of migrant disappearance,” Madi said. “Migrants also disappear as a result of smuggling and/or trafficking, often by criminal groups, including, in some cases, with the authorisation, support or acquiescence of the State.”
These factors are facilitated by a high level of impunity in relation to disappearances in the context of migration, while available statistical data on missing or forcibly disappeared migrants remain incomplete and are often considered to be underestimated. The latter contributes to the widespread invisibility of the phenomenon.
Madi’s report highlighted the profound anguish of families due to the lack of information on the fate or whereabouts of their loved ones.
“Inadequate search and identification mechanisms prolong this uncertainty and deny their right to truth and justice,” the expert said.
While acknowledging the complexity of transnational migrant disappearances, the Special Rapporteur stressed that these complexities do not exempt States from their human rights obligations or accountability.
He strongly recommended that States avoid criminalising or militarising migration policies and advocated for a shift toward human rights-based approaches.
“States must expand safe and regular pathways for admission and stay based on human rights and humanitarian grounds and strengthen State-provided humanitarian assistance along migration routes,” Madi said.
Recommendations in the Special Rapporteur’s report include expanding safe and regular migration pathways, providing stronger humanitarian assistance along routes, and establishing a truth and monitoring mechanism to ensure justice and prevent future violations.
Gehad Madi is the Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants
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