Committee: Human Rights Council (AG2-b)
Topic: The increase of illegal maritime immigration: what form of protection and rights
should these immigrants have?
Member of chair: Mélissa ALTINER ( after the delegateYagmur FAZLIOGLU's draft report)
Position: Co-Chair
Introduction
Migration is hardly a new phenomenon: individual human beings and entire
communities have always moved from one place to another for various reasons. In the
nineteenth century and the first half of the twentieth century migrations were effected mainly
from Europe to other continents or between European countries themselves. Nevertheless,
most European countries became the main countries of immigration after World War II.
It has been report that the migrant stock in Europe grew between 1990 and 2013: it has
passed 49 million of migrants to 72, 4 million.
Immigration from a poorer to a richer country, including illegal immigration, is
overwhelmingly upward. The living standard expectations of many illegal immigrants are
extremely high, and this is why, the United States, Australia, Canada and Western European
countries are getting more and more illegal immigrants looking for better living conditions.
People who arrived illegally by boat are referred to as illegal maritime arrivals (IMAs). Some
countries have millions of illegal immigrants and some of these countries don’t provide
protection to these immigrants. That’s why the Human Rights Council has to think about these
rights.
Definition of the keywords
İmmigration:
It is the movement of people into a country to which they are not native in
order to settle there, especially as permanent residents or future citizens.
Illegal Immigration:
Illegal immigration is the fact of living in a country without government permission.
Maritime İmmigration:
It is a sea-way migration.
Boat People:
It is ‘unauthorized boat’ or ‘irregular maritime’ arrivals (commonly referred to as ‘boat
people”).
General Overview
According to the Immigration laws, Immigrants can be classified as illegal for one of three
reasons: entering without authorization or inspection, staying beyond the authorized period
after legal entry, or violating the terms of legal entry.
Illegal maritime migration is an important phenomenon affecting the world. As we can see
on the graph below quite a lot of countries are concerned by this type of immigration.
Parliamentary Library, data source: UNHCR, All in the same boat: the challenges of mixed migration, UNHCR
website
Terrifying travelling conditions:
Most irregular maritime migrants
move from poor or conflict ridden countries
(like Africa, Latin America or the Middle
East) to rich and developed countries
(especially to Europe, United States and
Australia). This movement is monitored
carefully because it is really visible. The
picture next testifies it. Indeed the illegal
maritime immigration is taking place in an
overcrowded and unseaworthy boat so the
engine of the boat can break down easily
but also many people are likely to die
because of the lack of air (fumes of the ship) and the water requirements. Moreover the
captains are often callow and unscrupulous and there is not safety equipment like jackets on
board. Thus we can see that the travelling conditions are rather difficult and dangerous. Many
migrants and refugees described their trip as a terrible experience. It has been reported too
that there were some disasters during these maritime migrations like the disaster of the 3 rd
October 2013: a boat carrying migrants (approximately 400) from Libya to Italy sank off
Lampedusa (island of Italy). Most of them died or were lost in the sea.
The event in Aegean Sea is also worth mentioning: a migrant boat attempting to sail from
Turkey to Greece capsized near the Greek island of Lesvos in 2014. The boat was carrying
about 28 people. At least 20 bodies were recovered. Only one survivor was located. Media
reports described the migrants as Iraqis or “of Asian origin.” The boat’s captain was
reportedly Turkish.
Unfortunately, this kind of tragedy has happened regularly in the last decades and the number
is increasing nowadays.
Complex laws:
There are laws about maritime immigration especially concerning the borders but also the
rescue of the shipwrecked. For example, rescue boats have to help one in distress. But there
can be problems thereafter to land. Indeed this was the case for the tanker Salamis. The crew
rescued a vessel carrying migrants from Libya; the captain was instructed by the Italian
Search and Rescue Coordination Center which stated that he had to go to the closest port,
Tripoli but after it advised him to head for Malta, the next port of call. However, the Maltese
SAR (Search and Rescue) was against that. Despite of this, the boat accosted Malta.
Therefore, we can see that the situation was very complicated.
There is also a law (obviously) which prohibits access to land illegally. So, coast guards have
to push the clandestine boats and as a result these boats are sometimes doomed to shipwreck.
These actions are called “push back”. That’s a crime according to the law of the sea. For
example, on July 2013, Somali migrants were located and brought to Malta by the Armed
Forces of Malta in the purpose of sending them back to Somalia. However their deportations
were stopped by the Court, which later on issued an order prohibiting deportations.
Don’t forget these laws
The Human Rights Council mustn’t forget some articles of the United Nations Declaration of
Human Rights especially the United Nations Declaration on Human Rights of Individuals
who are not nationals of the country in which they live. It guarantees to non-nationals called
“aliens” a few rights such as life and security, privacy, fair treatment before tribunals, freedom
of conscience and religion, equality and others.
Major countries concerned by the illegal maritime immigration
Australia
Immigration to Australia is administered by the Department of Immigration and Border
Protection (DIBP), formerly the Department of Immigration and Citizenship (DIAC).
According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), the majority of people in Australia
illegally are visa over stayers, who enter the country legally but remain there after the expiry
or revocation of their visa. DIAC estimated that in the period from 1 July 2009 to 30 June
2010, approximately 15,800 people overstayed their visas out of 4.5 million temporary
entrants during that period (about 0.35 per cent).
Turkey
Turkey is on a major migration route with ever-increasing numbers of illegal
immigrants from its economically and politically unstable East trying to cross its territory
towards Europe. Nearly 700.000 illegal migrants were apprehended in Turkey within the
period 1995-2007. One of the main features of illegal immigration is the fact that it is being
conducted by organized networks.
Greece
The percentage of foreign populations in Greece is as high as 8, 4% in proportion to the
total population of the country. Migrants are so plentiful that in a society with negative
natural population growth, immigration has become the sole source of population increase,
overall with more recent political asylum and/or illegal migration flows through Turkey of
Afghans, Iranians, Iraqis, Somali and others. Since the 1990s, increases in such flows have led
to the emergence of immigration as an increasingly important political issue in Greece.
Italy
As of January 2013, there have been 4,387,721 foreign national residents in Italy. There
is a high level of illegal immigration to Italy - in May 2008, The Boston Globe quoted an
estimate of 670,000 undocumented residents. Many immigrants from Africa make the
dangerous boat journey across the Mediterranean to Italy.
United States
The Pew Hispanic Center estimates that 6–7 million Hispanic immigrants came to the
United States via illegal entry, accounting for probably a little over half of the total Hispanic
population. There are an estimated half million illegal entries into the United States each year.
A common means of border crossing is to hire people smugglers to help them across the
border. Those operating on the US-Mexico border are known informally as "coyotes".
Organizations involved
Department of Immigration and Border Protection (DIBP)
The Australian Department of Immigration and Border
a department of
the Government
of
Australia that
for immigration, citizenship and border control.
Protection (DIBP) is
is
responsible
UNHCR
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), also
known as the UN Refugee Agency, is a United Nations agency mandated to protect and
support refugees at the request of a government or the UN itself and assists in their voluntary
repatriation, local integration or resettlement to a third country.
International Maritime Organization (IMO)
Also known as the Inter-Governmental Maritime Consultative Organization, the IMO's
primary purpose is to develop and maintain a comprehensive regulatory framework for
shipping and its remit today includes safety, environmental concerns, legal matters, technical
co-operation, maritime security and the efficiency of shipping.
UN Implication
The UN’s top human rights official urged Egypt and other North African and European States
to help bring justice to the people smugglers who willingly sank a boat causing the deaths of
hundreds of refugees and migrants, a “truly horrendous incident” in the Mediterranean.
Possible Solutions
The Human Rights Council must know, first of all, that the migrants aren’t always treated
well on arrival (especially in countries which are in crisis like the United States, Europe…).
Indeed they are frowned at and if they want to work, they will have jobs that the citizens of
the country don’t want. It will be said that they are “rejected”. Moreover they are generally
concentrated in the same places and so there can be an overpopulation in these countries
(that’s for example the case of Italy). Thus the Human Rights Council has to think how these
migrants can be protected or how it will be possible to limit these immigrations. It can also
consider the positive effects of welcoming migrants in a country.
For that, delegates could maybe suggest:
-
to create new laws for the protection of this population,
to apportion the immigrants all over Europe ( in this way there won’t be as many
conflicts with host countries),
-
to help conflict ridden countries and poor countries prevent departures,
-
to think about how the host countries can welcome immigrants and benefit from them.
Bibliography
http://europeecologie.eu/IMG/pdf/dossier_frontex.pdf
http://www.gisti.org/publication_som.php?id_article=2126
http://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/briefing_note/join/2014/522330/EXPOJOIN_SP(2014)522330_EN.pdf
http://migrantsatsea.org/tag/maritime-migration/
https://www.immi.gov.au/visas/humanitarian/_pdf/implementation_single_process_ima.pdf
http://www.fmreview.org/crisis/kumin
http://migrantsatsea.org/
http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=48749#.VDG6lfl_sg0
http://www.unhcr.org/4ef306599.pdf
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illegal_immigration
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Sovereign_Borders
http://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Issues/Migration/A-69-CRP-1_en.pdf
http://www.unhcr.org/4ef306599.pdf
http://www.immi.gov.au/pub-res/Documents/research/global-irregular-maritime-migration.pdf
http://www.pfcmalta.org