UN: Stranded migrants need safe and dignified return

The UN Committee on Migrant Workers has called on governments to take immediate action to address the inhumane conditions of migrant workers who are stranded in detention camps. 

The authorities of different countries have also been urged to ensure they can have an orderly, safe and dignified return to their home countries, according to the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights on Thursday.

“Migrants, mostly from African and South Asian countries, are regularly scapegoated for the spread of the coronavirus," the independent experts of the Committee said. 

There are reports of ill-treatment and even torture every single day in detention camps, with allegations that inmates do not receive medical treatment. Some are even left to die,” said the experts.

The Committee raised deep concerns over the situation of migrant workers, especially those detained in Gulf countries, including Saudi Arabia and Yemen, and in North African countries such as Libya.

Major media reported in early September that thousands of African migrant workers are locked in cramped and unhygienic camps in Saudi Arabia.  

Video images showing detained migrant workers sleeping and eating in facilities with raw sewage spilling across the floor are evidence of the shocking conditions that require immediate action from the international community, it stressed.

“The Covid-19 pandemic is currently wreaking havoc all over the world. In many countries, the death toll is rising, health systems are under challenge, and unemployment rates are unprecedentedly high," said the experts.