Tunisia: UN Special-Rapporteur Crépeau Calls for Enshrining Migrants' Rights in the New Constitution

UN Special-Rapporteur on Human Rights of Migrants François Crépeau called the Tunisian authorities to "incorporate the rights of citizens and migrants in the new constitution."

Speaking to the press, on Friday in Tunis, at the end of his visit to Tunisia (June 3-8), he suggested to establish a national institution for migrants' human rights, guarantee that the national prevention mechanism which is under creation would have the mandate to visit all migrants' detention centres, decriminalise illegal border-crossing and create a national procedure of refugee status recognition, which complies with international standards.

Besides, the UN special-rapporteur recommended to guarantee the migrants' right to contact their family and a lawyer, ratify the International Conventions on the Protection of the Rights of all Migrant Workers and Members of their Families and encourage the activities of NGOs that support migrants.

He called on the European Union to keep on supporting democratic transition in Tunisia and adopt with it a more balanced policy of migratory co-operation "that goes beyond the discourse on security and checking at borders," he said.

Mr. Crépeau urged the EU member states to take all the required steps to rescue migrants in distress in the Mediterranean and "to intensify search for the missing three hundred Tunisians."

The UN special-rapporteur's visit to Tunisia is part of a regional study on the human rights of migrants on the European Union's external borders. The purpose of his visit is to evaluate protection of the migrants' rights at the level of laws, set up policies and the Tunisian government's practices.

Mr. François Crépeau will pay similar visits to Turkey, Italy and Greece. The data collected will serve to devise a thematic report which will be made public in 2013, after examination by the UN Human Rights Council.

Click here to read the UN press release

Source: allAfrica.com