Throughout the current global wave of migration, the SI Council and Committee on Migrations have consistently urged respect for the human rights of migrants and underlined the need to address the root causes of migration. The guiding principles of the organisation were laid out in 2015 in the SI Charter of the Rights of Migrants, which outlines that the need to overcome poverty, escape conflict and rise to the challenge posed by economic and environmental hardship is behind the majority of cases of migration and exile.
The SI Charter is a demonstration of the commitment of the member parties of the SI to fight to overcome the injustices, discrimination and racist and xenophobic practices faced by migrants. In light of the situation currently being faced by migrants in Libya, the Council strenuously underlines the provision of Article 5 of the charter, which states: "All practices such as slavery, servitude, forced or obligatory labour, and human trafficking shall be prohibited."
The recent emergence of clear evidence of the selling of humans as slaves in Libya is a shocking and abhorrent demonstration of complete disregard for the human rights of migrants who have in many cases been taken unwittingly into the country by human traffickers under false pretences. Migrants, in Libya as in the whole world, are among the most vulnerable in society and are particularly prone to exploitation and mistreatment.
The SI Council reaffirms the fundamental commitment of SI member parties to the Charter of the Rights of Migrants, and strenuously rejects all violations of the basic rights of migrants around the world. It entrusts the SI Committee on Migrations, which has been re-established for the current inter-Congress period, to continue the engagement of the SI in this area, working to uphold the rights of migrants and develop concrete proposals and initiatives to alleviate the root causes of this phenomenon.
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