Enforced disappearances in rhe context of migration.

 

This session focused on the growing trend of enforced disappearances in the context of migration, which prompted the UN Committee on Enforced Disappearances to adopt its first General Comment on the matter. Panelists discussed key migration routes leading to the Global North, including the journey from South to Central America toward the United States, crossings from Africa to Europe via the Mediterranean or Atlantic routes, and movement through the Balkans into Western Europe. The discussion examined the factors contributing to enforced disappearances of migrants and explored responses from various stakeholders to address this critical issue.

Common themes 

• Contributing factors: Panelists mentioned factors that contribute directly or indirectly to the enforced disappearance of migrants, such as the lack of safe and regular migration routes, immigration detention at borders, “pushbacks”, increasingly militarized State policies and border management, and discrimination against migrants. 

• Heightened challenges for migrants and their families: Migrants are in a vulnerable situation due to their irregular administrative situation. They are exposed to multiple rights violations, may be targeted by local authorities or human traffickers in departure, transit and destination countries. For their families, undertaking search and identification of their disappeared loved one in a foreign country is challenging on multiple levels: they need visas to access the country, resources to travel and stay in that country, support to navigate a different administrative and legal system to request information, file a case, there may be exposed to security risks, discrimination, etc. 

• Essential support from CSOs and international organizations CSOs and international organizations such as IOM and ICRC support migrants along the journey by providing shelter, legal and psychological assistance. They also provide support to families in their search and identification efforts, share information, raise awareness about dangerous journeys and about. 

• Adequate legal and institutional framework: Some States have adapted their legal and institutional framework to address this issue. Best practices include the coordination between the relevant entities (judiciary, forensic unit, police, Interpol), establishing registers, developing an application to register cases, providing support to families searching for their loved ones.

 • Prevention efforts Irregular and dangerous migration routes increase the risk of enforced disappearance for migrants. The need to provide legal regular pathways to migration was repeatedly highlighted. Organizations such as the IOM also provide guidance to States on how to manage their borders and carry out search and rescue operations in line with international standards to prevent the disappearance, including enforced disappearance, of migrants. 

• Building multi-actor partnerships: Enforced disappearance of migrants is a cross-thematic issue that often intersects with irregular migration, human trafficking, and other human rights violations. As such, it requires concerted efforts to avoid fragmentation of initiatives. CSOs, international organizations such as IOM and ICRC, and relevant UN human rights bodies, including CED, WGEID and the Special Rapporteur on the rights of migrants play a key role in giving visibility to the issue and remind States of their international legal obligations.

• Strengthening national legal and institutional frameworks: In line with CED General Comment No.1 on enforceddisappearances in the context of migration, States should: - Develop and adopt national and regional rights-based migration policies - Foster access to legal and regular migration - Train law enforcement and border officials on the rights of migrants at borders - Prohibit secret and incommunicado detention of migrants - Establish registers of migrants - Build the capacity of consular services to address families’ claims in countries of origin and to coordinate with countries where migrants are forcibly disappeared. 

• Strengthening support to families and their participation: Mechanisms should be established to support relatives and witnesses, such as providing visas to enable them to exercise their right to truth and justice, including to participate in the search and identification process - Affected families and CSOs should play a more central role in the development of migration policies and other relevant processes, such as search and identification of disappeared migrants. 

• Fostering cooperation and coordination: Encourage regional and international cooperation between States, including information sharing on best practices, forensic identification and data sharing, prosecution of related crimes such as human trafficking - Foster coordination amongst all actors to avoid fragmentation of initiatives amongst national authorities, the UN system, other international organizations, NHRIs, CSOs, media, and academia, with the objective of capitalizing on each other’s expertise and strengths.