‘Save the Lives of Migrants; Stop Smugglers from Exploiting their Desperation’

Geneva — On International Migrants Day 2014, December 18^th, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) Director General William Lacy Swing calls for urgent action to save the lives of migrants and stop smugglers from exploiting their desperation to extort huge sums of money.

IOM fears that number of deaths at sea could rise, if the European Union fails to put in place a comprehensive and well-equipped rescue operation in the Mediterranean to replace Italy’s now discontinued Mare Nostrum.

Governments should de-criminalize irregular migrants

Countries must also pass laws to crack down on the smugglers, not on the irregular migrants, according to the IOM Director General.

“Governments should de-criminalize irregular migrants so that they can report smugglers to the police for prosecution and contribute to efforts against trans-national organized crime,” he says.

With 33.3 million people internally displaced and 16.7 million refugees, the number of people displaced by violence and conflict today in the world is the highest since World War ll.

An unprecedented number of man-made crises in the world, including in Syria, Iraq, Libya, the Central African Republic and South Sudan; Ebola impacting the economies of West Africa; climate change and extreme weather events are all factors driving migration that must be addressed.

“Desperation migration”

To address this “desperation migration”, IOM wants to see better access to safe, regular migration. This includes promoting labor migration partnerships and family re-unification, providing clear information about the risks of irregular migration, and supporting community stabilization and job creation efforts in countries of origin.

Around 232 million people are international migrants. While the number of international migrants has increased in absolute terms, the share of international migrants in the world population remains constant at around 3 per cent.

“Migration is not only inevitable, but also necessary and desirable,” says Ambassador Swing. Societies are ageing in the North, while in the South, young populations are growing. The rise of anti-migrant sentiment is a cruel irony at a time when ageing societies need migration to provide much-needed labor,” he observes.

“The international community must work together to change the actual migration narrative to something more positive, focusing on what migrants contribute to their host countries, as well as their countries of origin, which benefit hugely from the remittances they send home,” he adds.

For more information, please go to http://mmp.iom.int/migrantsday

*Source: IOM