A temporary shelter set up by migrants recently expelled from Morocco, PIX: MSF |
We, civil society organizations (CSOs) meeting in
Banjul on 16 April, 2012;
Recalling the resolution on the rights of refugees,
asylum seekers, migrants and displaced persons adopted by the African NGO Forum
in Banjul October 21, 2011 and submitted to the African Commission on Human
Rights and Peoples;
Deeply concerned by the recent mass arrests targeting
hundreds of sub-Saharan nationals,
including women and children in the cities of Nouakchott and Nouadhibou by
Mauritanian security forces, their detention and their collective deportation
towards the borders with Mali and Senegal;
Deeply concerned by the increase, since last fall, of
violent roundups, robbery leading in some cases to killings of sub-Saharan
nationals, including refugees, asylum seekers, unaccompanied minors and
pregnant women in major cities of Morocco and the region of Nador and Oujda and
mass-expulsion towards the Algerian border;
Deeply concerned by the situation of 200 000 Malians who fled their country, in particular the lack of assistance to states where these refugees are located;
Deeply concerned by the proliferation of detention
centers for migrants in many African countries;
Deeply concerned by increasingly restrictive asylum
policies resulting in unreasonable length of asylum request processing time and
the very low number of refugee status given in particularly in Senegal and
South Africa;
Deeply concerned by the lack of access to justice and
legal assistance;
Condemn the numerous violations of human rights
protected under the African Charter on Human and Peoples' committed in the
course of these events, including the principle of non-discrimination (Article
2), the right to respect for life and physical and moral integrity of the
person (Article 4); the prohibition of torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading
treatment (Article 5); the prohibition of arbitrary arrest and detention
(Article 6); the right to a fair trial and the right to seize the competent
national authorities (Article 7); the right to free movement (Article 12.1);
asylum (Article. 13), the principle of due process in deportation proceedings
(Article 12.4); the prohibition of collective expulsion of aliens (Article 12.5);
And finally we reiterate our request to see the
resolution on the rights of refugees, asylum seekers, migrants and displaced
persons of above 21 October 2001adopted by the African Commission on Human
Rights and Peoples.
Done in Banjul on April 16, 2012, at the Africa
NGOs Forum.
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