UN: Step Up Efforts to Protect Migrants, Refugees
UN: Step Up Efforts to Protect Migrants, Refugees UNITED NATIONS— A new U.N. report expresses concern about rising xenophobia and discrimination against migrants and refugees. “Xenophobic and racist responses to refugees and migrants seem to be reaching new levels of stridency, frequency and public acceptance,” U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon says in the report released Monday. Several countries in Europe have built fences or closed their borders to try to stem the flow of people fleeing war and poverty seeking entry into their countries. The secretary-general warns that this growing trend, as well as the criminalizing of irregular migration, will not stop the outflows of people, but rather force them to take more risky routes and extreme measures. “Our interconnected world needs a dignified approach to human mobility rather than one built on closed borders and criminalization,” Ban writes. Since January, the International Organization for Migration estimates that ...