A/HRC/35/41/Add.1 Migrants from the Southern Common Market (MERCOSUR) 52. In total, 40 per cent of the total migrant population surveyed by the National Institute against Discrimination, Xenophobia and Racism declared that they had suffered discrimination, mainly related to nationality, poverty and skin colour. Although the law facilitates residency status for migrants from neighbouring countries, integration programmes remain insufficient and they had been marginalized. They often face de facto ghettoization, living in communities in the peripheral urban areas. According to the Institute, some nationalities are more likely to experience discrimination, such as Bolivians. They are constrained to taking low-skilled jobs and are often exploited. The number of fatal workplace accidents in recent years testifies to the dangerous work conditions that migrants are exposed to, including children. 18 Paradoxically, the Institute’s discrimination map revealed that 41 per cent of those interviewed held the belief that “workers who come from other countries are taking away jobs from Argentinian workers”.19 53. The Special Rapporteur was informed that, despite the existing legal protection, migrants sometimes face difficulties in gaining access to basic services, particularly from private-service providers. An example was given of a cable television provider that simply refused to serve customers living in certain areas, claiming it was too dangerous for a technician to perform the necessary installations in those locations. The Ministry of Public Defence also provided information on a long-pending judicial case against a transportation company that stopped its evening service to a particular area with a high concentration of migrant workers. More worrisome was the refusal of ambulances to provide services in certain areas citing security concerns. Access to judicial remedies also often remains near impossible for such populations, even cases of murder. 20 Migrants from outside the Southern Common Market (MERCOSUR) 54. Since the 1990s, Argentina has been a destination for migrants from Africa and outside MERCOSUR, such as the Dominican Republic and Haiti. The Special Rapporteur notes the efforts made by the Government to regularize a number of migrants from Senegal, with the implementation of a special regime implemented early in 2013 leading to 1,697 applications, of which 1,391 had been resolved by January 2014. Similarly, since 2004, of the 12,598 requests for regularization from Dominican nationals, 6,298 have been given residency. However, those were one-time exercises, and many Senegalese and Dominicans remain in irregular situations making them vulnerable to discrimination and exploitation. 55. While the presence of Africans in quantitative terms is considerably less than other migrants, they are highly visible because Argentina perceives itself as a country without an endogenous black community. For black migrants, the process of inclusion in local society has been a complex one. Many African migrants work mostly in the informal sector, including sidewalk vending, which has exposed them to harassment and extortion by the police and local gangs, and widespread horizontal stigmatization. Access to housing has been very difficult for them, and they often live in slums or crowded city boarding houses, where they are subjected to excessive rents. 56. The Special Rapporteur is particularly worried about the escalation of violence against this population group and the total absence of mechanisms of protection that are accessible to them. In March 2016, Massar Ba, leader of the Senegalese community in the city of Buenos Aires, died a brutal death. Civil society organizations have expressed concerns that his death occurred after he had filed a complaint against the metropolitan police for the persecution of Senegalese street vendors. Following his complaint, he was evicted by the police from the community home where he had been living. In the days preceding his tragic death, he participated in a protest with other sidewalk vendors to 18 19 20 12 See report on compliance with the ICERD (paras. 58 and 59), http://tbinternet.ohchr.org/Treaties/CERD/Shared%20Documents/ARG/INT_CERD_NGO_ARG_25 858_E.pdf. See Instituto Nacional contra la Discriminación la Xenofobia y el Racismo, Mapa de la Discriminación: Segunda Edición (Buenos Aires, 2014), p. 77. See footnote 18.