Monday, September 10, 2018

Warnings from the UN's high commissioner for human rights,

The United Nations high commissioner for human rights, Michelle Bachelet, is sending teams to Italy and Austria to look into the protection of migrants after what she called an “alarming escalation of attacks” against asylum seekers and Roma people.

Bachelet said: “Italy’s decision to close its seaports, denying entry to NGO rescue ships, had serious consequences on the most vulnerable. Even though we are seeing a big drop in the numbers of coming from Libya over the past 12 months, the numbers of those who died during the crossing is higher in the first six months of 2018 than it was.”

Anti-racist groups in Italy have warned of a dangerous acceleration in attacks on immigrants after14 shootings, two murders, and 56 physical assaults were recorded in the three months since Salvini entered government in June. Charities and NGOs have accused Salvini of creating a climate of hate following the attacks, which have coincided with an anti-migration drive that has included a vow to expel Roma people.

Bachelet – who is a former president of Chile – warned about abuses worldwide, citing among others the “deeply disturbing allegations of large-scale arbitrary detentions of Uighurs and other Muslim communities, in so-called re-education camps across Xinjiang”, and the Trump administration’s “unconscionable” separations of migrant families. Bachelet voiced concern over the 500 migrant children in the United States taken away from their parents who have not yet been returned by authorities. She denounced the announcement by Donald Trump’s administration last week that it would sidestep a court agreement limiting detention of migrant children to 20 days. 

Bachelet called for a new institution to “collect evidence with a view to future prosecution of crimes against Muslim Rohingya in Myanmar. ” She urged the Saudi-led military coalition in Yemen to show “greater transparency in its rules of engagement and hold to account perpetrators of airstrikes on civilians”, and voiced alarm at anti-migrant violence in Germany, raising concerns of recent unrest in Chemnitz, where 2,500 people have marched in a far-right demonstration after a German man died following a fight with two Afghans.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/sep/10/un-human-rights-chief-sends-team-to-italy-after-alarming-anti-migrant-violence

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