States must work to guarantee the human rights of migrants, including in responses to current crisis, says OSCE/ODIHR Director Link

WARSAW, 18 December 2015 – States have an obligation to guarantee the human rights of migrants, including in their responses to the current refugee crisis in Europe, Michael Georg Link, Director of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), stressed in a statement today, on International Migrants Day.

“The refugee crisis in Europe has focused greater attention on the plight of many migrants,” Director Link said. “The issue of migration has been a focus of commitments made by the OSCE participating States dating back to the adoption of the Helsinki Final Act, in 1975, but current circumstances demonstrate that numerous challenges remain.”

The current refugee crisis, he said, highlights challenges faced in ensuring the dignified treatment of migrants, including refugees, at borders, as well as in ensuring that they are not the targets of hate crimes or other forms of intolerance and xenophobia.

“Many refugees, in making perilous journeys to flee countries where their security and lives were seriously threatened, have met with overwhelmed national migration systems, abuse at the hands of authorities, and hate crimes,” the ODIHR Director said. “Unfortunately, this has been the experience not just of many refugees, but often also in the case of economic migrants. Participating States have an obligation to protect and promote the human rights and security of all migrants in their countries.”

While he added that there have been significant efforts by governments and civil society in this direction, more needs to be done, including in promoting integration into society in their destination countries.

“Governments need to step up efforts to promote the integration of migrants into host societies, in the course of developing effective national migration-management policies,” Director Link said. “Our office remains committed to working with participating States, at their request, to assist them in meeting their OSCE human dimension commitments, which apply to economic migrants, asylum seekers and refugees alike.”