The statement from the Global Migration Group — combining 12
UN agencies, the World Bank and the International Organization for Migration —
said it was concerned about the rights of tens of millions of migrants in
'irregular' circumstances around the globe.
Such people can include illegal immigrants or migrants whose
asylum requests are not considered legitimate.
"This is our response to the global trend to confine
migration policies solely within the narrow context of security and border
control," UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay told
reporters.
"This is a reminder that while states are entitled to
regulate movement across their borders they must do so in accordance with their
obligations under international law including international human rights
law."
The statement said irregular migrants were particularly
vulnerable to abuse. Governments too often treated them purely in terms of
national security, often driven by hostile domestic political pressures.
Pillay said Arizona's new immigration law, passed to expel
nearly half a million illegal immigrants from the state and stem the flow of
human and drug smugglers over the border from Mexico, was certain to be raised
at an international conference on migration in Mexico on Nov. 8-11.
The South African jurist said the Global Forum on Migration
and Development, an annual UN initiative, would discuss the measure, which UN
officials have already denounced as discriminatory because it allows police to
stop and search individuals on the suspicion they are illegal immigrants.
The statement is also directed among others at European
governments and the way they treat Roma.
France's
expulsion of Roma migrants over the summer sparked a row at an EU summit this
month between France and Germany and led one EU official to recall Nazi
persecution of the group.
