A tweet from an official of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees accusing the mothers of missing migrant children in the Mediterranean of being responsible for their fate has forced Vincent Cochetel to apologize for the outcry and UNHCR to update.
Vincent Cochetel, UNHCR’s special envoy for the Western and Central Mediterranean, reacted to a tweet dedicated to a demonstration in Zarzis in Tunisia to commemorate migrants who disappeared in the Mediterranean while trying to reach Europe and was led by mothers of the disappeared.
“We are sorry for the loss. But these same mothers had no problem encouraging or paying for their children to embark on these dangerous journeys,” Vincent Cochetel tweeted on Tuesday, before stressing that the convictions of the parents in Senegal for having sent your children could help make you think and stop encouraging these very dangerous trips.
Resignation Request
Vincent Cochetel, whose account was criticized in often violent terms for the “insensitivity” of these comments, apologized on Wednesday.
“Reflecting on the strong reactions to my previous tweets, my comments were off the mark. I am especially sorry to the mothers who have lost their children,” the Frenchman wrote.
He attributed his reaction to “the frustration of seeing so many lives lost and the impunity enjoyed by smugglers.” But, he stressed, “that does not justify my words.”
The Alarm Phone project – which provides an emergency number for migrants in distress – called for the resignation of Vincent Cochetel, calling these comments cynical “betraying a lack of understanding” of the complex reasons that push people to undertake these dangerous journeys. “.
2,048 immigrants killed in the Mediterranean in 2021
A spokesman for UNHCR, based in Geneva, explained that the organization “is not in favor of sentencing family members (of missing children Editor’s Note)”, except in cases of criminal activity.
“We fully understand the reactions to this tweet and the special envoy has apologized,” the spokesman said.
UNHCR extends its condolences to all those affected by this strategy and the organization “always stands in solidarity with all those who have lost their children.”
Since the beginning of the year, 1,264 migrants have died or disappeared in the Mediterranean, according to the Missing Migrants Project of the International Organization for Migration. They were 2048 in 2021.
Source: BFM TV
