A/71/254 encounter particular obstacles to be registered as asylum seekers based on their minority characteristics. 23 61. In other circumstances, including during internal conflicts, certain min orities’ freedom of movement is restricted on account of their identity, owing to perceived threats that they pose. This can lead to a refusal to permit passage to safe areas and restrict access to humanitarian assistance for those individuals because of t he community’s identity or ethnicity. The Special Rapporteur observed this with regard to internally displaced persons in relation to Sunni Muslims in the Kurdistan region in Iraq (see A/HRC/32/35/Add.1, para. 43). 62. Violence against minorities can also be more insidious, as has been evident with the recent migration crisis in Europe. Recent protracted conflicts in the Middle East, and in particular the Syrian Arab Republic, led to mass migration flows to Europe in 2015 and 2016. However, this has also been coupled by certain xenophobic reactions against particular flows of asylum seekers and refugees fleeing crisis, which may in turn lead to more violence and insecurity against them. 2. Access to food, water and sanitation, health care, education and employment opportunities 63. Given their extreme vulnerability, minorities face additional challenges in accessing basic economic, social and cultural rights either during crises or in their aftermath. Owing to discrimination and marginalization, minorities who are affected by crises and disasters often lack proper access to water and sanitation, adequate food, and other services including health care, and to education. 64. For example, the Muhamasheen minority in Yemen have been severely affected by the Yemeni conflict, and suffer from an almost absolute lack of protection in a protracted situation of conflict crises and limited humanitarian resources. Unlike others affected by the conflict, Muhamasheen ha ve often been displaced into open spaces or the edges of towns, making their access to resources, such as shelter, water or medical emergency assistance, even more difficult. 24 65. The differentiated access to economic, social and cultural rights for partic ular minority groups in situations of displacement can often be compounded by a lack of adequate documentation. This may further impede access to humanitarian assistance, including a range of public services during crises such as health care, education, housing and employment programmes, as well as social integration. For example, the Special Rapporteur on internally displaced persons noted in his report on Serbia and Kosovo 25 that Roma, Ashkali and Egyptian internally displaced persons have been more vulnerable than other internally displaced persons in accessing basic services owing to their lack of documentation (see A/HRC/26/33/Add.2, para 20). __________________ 23 24 25 16-13193 Human Rights Watch, World Report: 2016 — Events of 2015 (New York, 2016). Glenn Payot, Advocacy Officer of the Minority Rights Group, advocacy statement made at the thirty-first session of the Human Rights Council, Geneva, 15 March 2016. Available from http://minorityrights.org/advocacy-statements/mrg-calls-the-attention-of-the-un-human-rightscouncil-on-minorities-in-yemen-and-ogiek-in-kenya/. All references to Kosovo in the present document should be understood in full compliance with Security Council resolution 1244 (1999) and without prejudice to the status of Kosovo. 17/25