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Sinking of Mediterranean migrant boat mass murder, says UN rights chief Sinking of Mediterranean migrant boat mass murder, says UN rights chief
(about 1 hour later)
People smugglers who allegedly sank a boat killing up to 500 migrants are probably guilty of "mass murder" and should be brought to justice, the UN's new rights chief has said. The UN's new human rights chief has urged Egypt to join with European nations in hunting down the human traffickers who allegedly drowned up to 500 migrants in the Mediterranean by ramming their boat. He said the traffickers are likely guilty of "mass murder" and should be brought to justice.
"The callous act of deliberately ramming a boat full of hundreds of defenceless people is a crime that must not go unpunished," Zeid Ra'ad Zeid al-Hussein said in a statement. "If the survivors' accounts are indeed true – and they appear all too credible – we are looking at what amounts to mass murder in the Mediterranean." Zeid Ra'ad Zeid Al Hussein, the UN high commissioner for human rights, said it was important to "end the prevailing impunity surrounding such crimes", stressing that those seeking escape from chaos and warfare, such as the huge numbers fleeing Syria, had the right to seek refuge. He also demanded a wider rethink of the conditions that push so many thousands to undertake such risky voyages.
In one of the deadliest migrant shipwrecks on record, 500 migrants including up to 100 children drowned after smugglers allegedly sank their ship last week when Syrian, Palestinian, Egyptian, Sudanese and other passengers refused to change to a smaller vessel on their way to Italy. The first accounts of the events on a migrant sailing between Egypt and Malta emerged on Monday, when two Palestinian men, among a handful of survivors, told investigators from the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) that the people smugglers deliberately sank a boat carrying up to 500 people after the migrants refused to move to a smaller vessel. The story was later corroborated by other survivors, who said between 50 and 100 children might have died when the traffickers used their boat to ram the migrants' craft.
Eleven people survived the incident off Malta, some of whom told the International Organisation of Migration (IOM) that their boat was intentionally sunk by the smugglers, said to be Palestinians and Egyptians. Describing it as "a truly horrendous incident", Zeid said in a statement: "It is the duty of states to investigate such atrocious crimes, bring the perpetrators to justice, and even more importantly to do more to prevent them from happening in the first place. All the countries in the Mediterranean must make a concerted effort to clamp down on the smugglers who are exploiting one of the most vulnerable groups on the planet and endangering their lives, virtually on a daily basis, purely for financial gain.
"This is a truly horrendous incident," Zeid said, emphasising that countries circling the Mediterranean had a duty "to clamp down on the smugglers who are exploiting one of the most vulnerable groups on the planet and endangering their lives, virtually on a daily basis, purely for financial gain." "The callous act of deliberately ramming a boat full of hundreds of defenceless people is a crime that must not go unpunished. If the survivors' accounts are indeed true – and they appear all too credible – we are looking at what amounts to mass murder in the Mediterranean."
In addition to finding and punishing the perpetrators, countries worldwide must address the root causes of such tragedies, said Zeid, who took over as UN high commissioner for human rights this month. If such a mass murder was committed on its own soil any country would "throw the full weight of their police forces and justice systems behind an investigation", said Zeid, a Jordanian diplomat who took over the UN role at the start of this month. "The reaction should not be any less rigorous just because the victims are foreigners and the crime took place on the high seas. Yet very few people who kill, rape or rob migrants during their journeys end up in court."
"Far too many refugees and migrants are dying all across the world in an effort to flee conflict, systematic political oppression and human rights violations, including economic deprivation," he said. According to survivors, the migrants, comprising a number of Palestinians as well as nationals from Egypt, Syria, Sudan and Eritrea, boarded a boat in the Egyptian port of Damietta and switched ships three times during a four-day voyage. When they refused to join the last boat, fearing it was unseaworthy, the traffickers became enraged and sank their vessel.
The states of origin must tackle the root causes for people fleeing, while the European Union and other destination and transit countries should seek better ways of managing growing numbers of migrants without letting "xenophobia-driven politics" get in the way, he said. Zeid said the smugglers are all believed to be Egyptian or Palestinian. He urged officials in Malta, as well as Greece and Italy where the survivors were taken, to share information with Egyptian authorities. He said: "You cannot transport large quantities of foreigners in buses into a major port and cram them on board a ship without the port authorities and other witnesses being aware of what is going on."
According to the UN refugee agency, more than 2,500 people have drowned or gone missing attempting to cross the Mediterranean to Europe this year. Urging a wider rethink of migration issues, he said: "Far too many refugees and migrants are dying all across the world in an effort to flee conflict, systematic political oppression and human rights violations, including economic deprivation. These root causes in their countries of origin must be tackled in a concerted manner."
Zeid said all countries should "do more to address the range of factors pushing so many people into the arms of the smugglers", stressing that "migrants have the same rights as all other human beings".
He said countries should react as resolutely when migrants are killed by smugglers at sea as when their own citizens perish at the hands of criminal gangs at home. "Yet very few people who kill, rape or rob migrants during their journeys end up in court," he lamented.
Pointing out that refugees from war-ravaged Syria made up the largest and fastest-growing group of people seeking asylum in Europe, Zeid said: "It is essential that refugees are able to escape to safety."
Destination countries, meanwhile, should "not penalise them for taking irregular routes" and should take "more robust steps to protect them when they do", he said.