A/HRC/35/25
markets. Migrants respond to the demand for labour, and, under normal circumstances,
when demand declines in a particular area, so does migration to it.
As long as “push and pull” factors exist, migrants will continue to move
28.
Many factors influence the decisions of migrants as to why, when, to where and how
they want to migrate. The main push factors are poverty, violence, discrimination and poor
governance. The main pull factors are official or unacknowledged labour needs and family
reunification. Public discussion about these factors is, on the whole, extremely shallow,
often constituting nothing more than scaremongering about “benefit scroungers” and
migrants “stealing jobs”.
29.
Rather than addressing the reasons behind migration, States often respond to
increased migration movements by creating and progressively increasing barriers to
mobility, with a focus on securitization, repression and deterrence policies. Their central
objective has been to secure their borders by building fences, using violence to stop
undocumented population movements across land and sea borders, using long-term
detention as a deterrence tool and carrying out collective expulsions to countries of origin
and transit, all of which are too often conducted without sufficient assessment of individual
protection needs and adequate oversight. Moreover, States have moved their border
management activities beyond their territorial borders, extending them to the high seas and
third countries.
30.
Repressive policies and the lack of responses to push and pull factors of migration
only serve to create the perfect conditions for underground labour markets and smuggling
rings to flourish. States often do not address the reasons why individuals want or need to
move from their countries of origin and why employers in destination countries seek to
employ them, and yet they have created and progressively increased barriers to mobility.
The so-called “migration crisis” is policy driven. Placing restrictions on mobility is part of
the problem, not of the solution.
31.
The continued ineffectiveness and the paradoxes of border management and the lack
of a coherent human rights-based framework for migration have been vividly and visibly
exposed by the tragic deaths of migrants in transit, propelling the issue of the human rights
of migrants into the spotlight. Suffering is also experienced at all other stages of migration.
The repression of undocumented migrants and the externalization of borders do little but
increase the suffering of migrants and have the effect of entrenching smuggling rings and
exploitative recruiters and employers. Migrants will continue to arrive. The only solution is
to adopt well-managed migration policies that facilitate the mobility of migrants and
provide States with the border control that they need.
Facilitating mobility means offering regular, safe, accessible and affordable mobility
solutions
32.
In order to facilitate mobility, States must increase regular channels for migration
and the taxation of mobility, through the progressive expansion of visa liberalization and
easily accessible visa facilitation regimes and/or schemes, such as refugee settlement,
temporary protection, visitor, family reunification, work, resident, retirement and student
visas, with all the identity and security checks that efficient visa regimes can provide.
33.
In effect, States must reclaim the mobility market from the smugglers and adopt
measures to regularize undocumented migrants. Migrants do not want to be undocumented
or use smugglers, but are forced to do so owing to a lack of regular, safe, accessible and
affordable mobility options. They would rather pay a reasonable fee to a visa officer than
suffer extortion at the hands of smugglers. They would adapt to the requirements of States
for access to regular mobility solutions within a reasonable time and arrive at border posts,
presenting official identity and travel documents in good order, rather than embarking with
their families on a journey riddled with suffering. They would work in official labour
markets, even for the minimum salary, instead of being exploited and abused in
underground labour markets. Well-designed mobility policies are needed to induce this
virtuous cycle.
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