Michael O'Flaherty for UNSR on the human rights of migrants

Thank you very much for the invitation to participate in this event. I apologise that I can't be there with you. I'm in Valletta in Malta for an unavoidable commitment but I strongly support the work that the Special Rapporteur is doing on externalisation.

I welcome that he has invited me to participate in a complementary fashion because the United Nations and the regional organisations should seek every effort to collaborate in our shared work for human rights but in this case it's even more obvious because sadly a primary maybe the primary driver of the externalisation of migration efforts is driven from Europe. I've recently completed my own study on the topic. I've looked at the three areas of the externalisation of asylum consideration at the externalisation in the form of so-called return hubs and the funding of other states to our borders.

Every one of these areas is replete with human rights risk and so if states are going to go down these roads they must do it with extraordinary caution. They need to go down there with the eyes wide open in terms of a commitment to the respect for human rights. That means putting clear guardrails in place for any arrangements and any relationship with another state and it means that we must have in place strong effective human rights oversight and monitoring to spot things going wrong and ensuring that they're quickly fixed.

But let me leave it there. I wish you a very fruitful set of considerations in this gathering. Thank you.

Видео Michael O'Flaherty for UNSR on the human rights of migrants канала Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights