GENEVA, Switzerland – The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights referred to as on Friday for international locations to clamp down on folks smugglers and human traffickers after not less than 78 migrants have been killed in a shipwreck off the coast of Greece.
Witness accounts steered between 400 and 750 folks had packed a fishing boat that capsized and sank early on Wednesday morning about 50 miles (80 km) from the southern coastal city of Pylos.
“What happened on Wednesday underscores the need to investigate people smugglers and human traffickers and ensure they are brought to justice,” Jeremy Laurence, UN Human Rights Office spokesperson, informed reporters in Geneva.
“The High Commissioner reiterated his call to states to open up more regular migration channels and enhance responsibility sharing, ensure arrangements for the safe and timely disembarkation of all people rescued at sea, and the establishment of independent monitoring and oversight of migration related policies and practices.”
Dimitris Chaliotis, a Hellenic Red Cross volunteer who was a part of the rescue operations, mentioned that almost all migrants have been from Libya and Syria. In the rapid aftermath of the catastrophe 104 survivors and 78 individuals who drowned have been delivered to shore by Greek authorities, however nothing has been discovered since.
Nine folks have been arrested over the shipwreck, a Greek transport ministry official mentioned.
Greece is without doubt one of the foremost routes into the European Union for refugees and migrants from the Middle East, Asia and Africa.
The United Nations has recorded greater than 20,000 deaths and disappearances within the central Mediterranean since 2014, making it essentially the most harmful migrant crossing on the earth.
Nearly 3,800 folks died on migration routes inside and from the Middle East and North Africa final yr, the best quantity recorded there since 2017, in keeping with knowledge revealed earlier this month by the International Organization for Migration (IOM). — Reuters
Source: www.gmanetwork.com
