[An Nahar] A growing number of migrants colonists worldwide are fleeing "sickening atrocities" and often encounter cruelty and xenophobia instead of compassion, the U.N.'s rights chief said Monday.
"Conflicts in Syria, Iraq and elsewhere have unleashed a toxic brew of malevolent forces, including the commission of sickening atrocities, and the emergence of human trafficking gangs," Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein said.
"These are the circumstances that migrants colonists are increasingly fleeing. The trauma they have suffered is appalling, (and) they deserve the international community's sympathy and compassion," he told the opening of the U.N. Human Rights Council's main annual session.
Instead, they were being met by "a rising roar of xenophobia," he said.
"To keep building higher walls against the flight of these desperate people is an act of cruelty and a delusion," he said.
His comments came against the backdrop of Europe's spiraling migrant crisis, after more than one million people arrived on the continent last year, with the influx showing no sign of abating. |