UNHCR: migrant rescue should also occur in deserts
Sub-Saharan African migrants sit near tents at a camp in Jebeniana, Sfax governorate, Tunisia, May 04, 2024. Sfax is one of the main departure points in Tunisia for illegal migration to Europe by boat.
Keystone-SDA
The UN refugee agency UNHCR has called for the rescue of people on dangerous migration routes to be expanded.
This content was published on
3 minutes
Keystone-SDA
Deutsch
de
UNHCR: Migranten nicht nur auf See retten, sondern auch aus Wüsten
Original
UNHCR official responsible for the refugee situation on the central Mediterranean route, Vincent Cochetel, criticised humanitarian organisations in Geneva on Tuesday. He called for migrants to be helped along the migration route, for example in smaller towns where they are sometimes left alone by smugglers without supplies. Cochetel said migrants are in need of emergency aid and information about the dangers in those areas.
Not all migrants are refugees
According to the Organization for Migration (IOM), migrants are all people who leave their place of residence -regardless of reason, for how long or whether voluntarily or involuntarily. Refugees are a subgroup of migrants. Refugees seek protection from war or the threat of persecution, for example because of their religion, nationality or political beliefs. This means that refugees are also migrants, however, not all migrants are refugees.
According to the UNHCR, hundreds of thousands of people risk their lives on the move in sub-Saharan Africa. He emphasized that most of them are looking for new homes near their home countries and are not on their way to Europe.
Three quarters of the 108 million forcibly displaced people worldwide live in low- and middle-income countries. The UNHCR reports that these people are exposed to the risk of violence, torture and kidnapping on migration routes. There needs to be much more cooperation with local authorities who are on the ground in the areas and can help people, says the UNHCR. The UNHCR has called on donor countries to make more funding available.
Adapted from German by DeepL/amva
This news story has been written and carefully fact-checked by an external editorial team. At SWI swissinfo.ch we select the most relevant news for an international audience and use automatic translation tools such as DeepL to translate it into English. Providing you with automatically translated news gives us the time to write more in-depth articles.
If you want to know more about how we work, have a look here, and if you have feedback on this news story please write to english@swissinfo.ch.
What factors should be taken into account when inheriting Swiss citizenship abroad?
Should there be a limit to the passing on of Swiss citizenship? Or is the current practice too strict and it should still be possible to register after the age of 25?
Is your place of origin, your Heimatort, important to you?
Every Swiss citizen has a Heimatort, a place of origin, but many have never visited theirs. What’s your relationship with your Heimatort? What does it mean to you?
This content was published on
Scientists have shown that bonobos combine their calls into complex sound sequences that resemble combinations of human words.
This content was published on
US parliamentarians have threatened the UN Human Rights Council with sanctions similar to those against the International Criminal Court (ICC).
This content was published on
Thanks to abundant snowfall, lift operators benefited from increased visitor numbers, with the number of guests jumping by 12% year-on-year.
You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here . Please join us!
If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.