Geneva, 25 May 2009-Events this past month demonstrate the complexity-and risk-of mixing reflexes of rescue at sea that are commendable and comply with international law, with newer policies that go in other directions in unprecedented fashion and speed. The immediate return to Libya of 238 people rescued in international waters, without consideration of the refugees among them whose very lives were at risk or the injured, women and children in need of humanitarian attention, was a step across the red line of human dignity, towards a downward slope of diminished human dignity for us all.

Events over the past years have repeatedly demonstrated that irregular migration cannot be stopped with defensive mechanisms alone. The more that means are deployed to reduce these forms of human mobility, the higher the risks are that people take, the more the human trafficking business flourishes and the greater the occurrence of trauma, physical injury and death along the way. On maritime borders worldwide, 2009 began with nearly daily reports of the sinking and disappearance of boats, and the inhuman treatment of boat people on and surviving the voyages-a trend which reached another alarming level with the drowning of an estimated 200 to 300 people trying to reach Italy on a single day in March.

While there are clearly two needs in these stories: the needs of the human beings in peril and the need of countries to manage their borders, the increasing number of indiscriminate push-backs-in the Caribbean, in the Indian Ocean and on land borders, as well as in the Mediterranean-raises urgent questions on the ways that the 1951 Refugee Convention is implemented, and, more importantly, on the level of humanity of our societies. Disregard of a well-established, well-understood and long-respected International Convention significantly reduces the potential for global governance grounded in human decency, in that the rejection of human beings in need of basic international protection overshadows all of our rhetoric to build more humane societies. There is no political or economic argument that balances or counter weighs the value of a person and, while it is fully understood that solutions require sustained and longer-term action, immediate short term responses are also needed to fully respect every human person in his or her profound dignity and rights.

It is not the number of people within these so-called "mixed flows" of migrants and refugees that contributes to a widespread feeling that the arrivals are high and unmanageable; rather, it is the lack of structures to adequately assist and refer them. This insufficiency of structures sharpens negative positioning in the political arena, notably but not exclusively during election periods, and further fuels reflexes of rejection. ICMC emphasizes the value of working on a systematic basis to first provide these voyagers with humanitarian assistance and, upon assessment-particularly of the refugees, victims of torture, trafficking or trauma, and women or children among them-to refer them to the professional structures and services to which their human dignity, basic human decency and international law entitle them. Forcibly returning them without such differentiation, assistance or process is a denial not only of their rights and human identity, but of human yearnings we all share, including hope at its most elemental and the universal search for solidarity.

Working with refugees and migrants around the world, often in direct and constructive partnership with governments and intergovernmental organisations, ICMC deplores the reflex to resort to enforcement-only approaches. Such approaches do not work, and there are better alternatives: options within reach that are more humane and at the same time more effective in every way. Indeed, what is most needed-and genuinely possible-is collaboration rather than confrontation. In this regard, we appreciate the practical approach that the UN High Commissioner for Refugees has taken with its 10 Point Plan of Action on Refugee Protection and Mixed Migration and the support given by the European Union to the development of mechanisms for differentiation, protection, assistance, and in some cases, assisted return of the people in these border crossings. For its part and most concretely, ICMC has proposed to the EU a consortium of NGOs to share resources, expertise and responsibilities, to exchange and improve effective practice, alongside governments and international organizations engaged in this work, beginning without delay in the Mediterranean and North Atlantic region.

We live in a period of dramatic challenge and transition. Growing ecological concerns, increased mobility, the economic crisis and the well-being of all are interconnected societal and individual realities that call for a holistic approach, with new approaches to appropriate global governance and concern for the dignity and worth of every individual. A commission of Catholic bishops conferences worldwide, ICMC is committed to continue the collaboration on that path with partners and people at every level everywhere, regardless of faith, race, nationality or ethnic origin.

- Johan KETELERS, Secretary General
International Catholic Migration Commission
Geneva

For further information: Ms. Alanna RYAN, ICMC Communications, + 41 22 919 10 36; ryan@icmc.net<