UN calls for migrant protection

The UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Tuesday unveiled plans to coordinate the battle against human trafficking and other issues connected with migration.

Kofi Annan says more needs to be done to safeguard migrants

Calling migration a human rights issue, Annan unveiled a team  of experts who have been commissioned by the UN to carry out research into migration. They have been asked to present possible solutions to issues effecting migrants and their host countries by mid-2005.

“This is not only an economic issue, it is a human rights issue, too,” Annan said. “Greater international cooperation is needed to fight smuggling and trafficking and to build more comprehensive regimes to protect the human rights of migrants.”
   
Some 175 million people, or 3% of the world’s population, live outside the country where they were born, while migrant workers repatriate about $88 billion per year in earnings, according to recent UN data.
  
Migration is an increasingly politically charged issue worldwide, and in Europe the perceived threat from illegal immigrants has driven the rise of far-right parties recently.

Source: Reuters