20 May 2015
UN Crime Commission opens, urges collective action to combat migrant smuggling
The Executive Director of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), Yury Fedotov, has expressed horror and called the number of migrants dying in the Mediterranean ‘the latest reports of a tragedy seemingly without end’.
Speaking at the 24th Session of the Commission on Crime Prevention, Mr. Federov noted that the UN Convention on Transnational Organized Crime is capable of effectively managing the exploitation and smuggling of migrants, but ‘our policies must be coherent’. The Executive Director used the success of the Italian Governments’ efforts to simultaneously save migrant lives and combat smuggling as an example of what could be achieved under the Convention. The Executive Chief stressed the cross-border nature of migrant smuggling and its intimate ties with matters of international peace and security. He added that the UNODC would ‘support Governments efforts through the agency’s integrated, inter-regional approaches to tackling it along with other challenges’, the UN News Centre reported.
‘Thousands more migrants and refugees have died all over the world, on treacherous journeys to reach their destinations, often at the hands of criminal smuggling groups. We cannot let this situation continue’, he stated. ‘Our responses integrated and inclusive, uniting countries of origin, transit and destination, based on the principle of shared responsibility.’