Migrant Day UN - Club for UNESCO of Metropolitan Genoa

 

December 18th ′′ Migrant Day UN day for migrant rights, because no one saves themselves.

Indicted by the United Nations in 2000, recalls the adoption of an UN Convention on the subject. There are 272 million migrants in the world: India, Mexico and China, the main countries of origin.

The migration phenomenon affects all countries around the world, and to remember the rights of migrant people, an international day was established by the UN, which falls annually on December 18

Migrant Day

The celebration of Migrant Day has been held since 2000. The date chosen recalls the adoption by the UN General Assembly of the ′′ Convention for the protection of the rights of all migrant workers and members of their families ". The document was approved On 18 December 1990, it entered into force in 2003 to reach the minimum number of ratifications. The 54 ratifications currently present, however, mostly belong to the countries of origin of migration flows: the European States, including Italy, are missing today. The Convention recognizes the specific vulnerability situation of migrants and promotes decent and legitimate working and living conditions. Among the guidelines promoted by the UN are the guidelines for developing national migration policies based on respect for human rights, to be adopted to combat abuse and exploitation.

In its preamble, the Convention recalls some previous conventions of the International Labour Organisation (ILO), such as the 1949 migrant workers and the 1945. abolition of forced labour. In addition, other international treaties on the human rights, such as the 1960 Convention against discrimination in education adopted by Unesco, and still the most recent Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, dating back to 2006. More generally the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All the migrant workers and members of their 1990 families have as their primary objective to promote respect for the human rights of migrants who are not only workers, but first of all are human beings. It's not coincidentally the ′′ sparkle ′′ that brought to this text is linked to a tragedy that upset the public, almost half a century ago now.

World migration numbers

According to the latest World Migration Report from the International Organization for Migration (Oim), migrant people in the world are 272 million (about 3,5 % of the world's population), two-thirds of which change country due to work. Added to these are the so-called ′′ internal displaced ", people forced to abandon their homes but remain in the same state (41 million) and stateless people (3,9 million). Several events have increased the number of departures in recent years: long conflicts such as Syria, Yemen, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo and South Sudan; ethnic violence campaigns such as Rohingya in Myanmar or serious economic crises, as in case of Venezuela. India is the home country of the largest number of migrants (17,5 million), followed by Mexico and China, while the United States remains the main destination with 50,7 million arrivals. In 2018, the total flow of migrant remittances reached $ 689 billion: a number that confirms how the migration phenomenon involves not only people from warfare or high poverty countries, but also widespread in developed areas.

Europe and Italy in the face of migration

According to the latest Eurostat data, 2,4 million migrants entered the EU countries in 2018 and by the end of the same year those resident in the 27 member countries were 446,8 million, 4,9 % of the total population. Malta is the country with the highest migrant population rate (55 per 1.000 inhabitants), while Italy is one of the last of this ranking (5,5 per 1.000 inhabitants). Our country saw the entry of about 332 thousand people, 230 thousand of them being extra-Community. In recent years, the national public debate has focused especially on illegal arrivals by sea of migrants, but they represent a very small portion of the phenomenon: in 2018 there were 23.126, about a tenth of the total.

Massimo Ruggero, president of the 

Club for UNESCO of Metropolitan Genoa