Rights group calls for protection of migrants in US

A human rights group has called on various international organisations, including the UN, to ensure that the US immigration authorities comply with standard protocol, an official statement said.

The Iberoamerican Federation of Ombudsman (FIO) called on the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, the International Committee of the Red Cross to ensure that human rights were complied with.

The National Human Rights Commission (CNDH) of Mexico on Sunday said that the FIO had sent letters to the International Organisation for Migration and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights as well, Efe News reported.

The letters, signed by FIO President and Portuguese Ombudsman Jose de Faria Costa, appealed to the organisations to work "in favour of the fundamental rights of people in the context of migration that lay in the American Union," said CNDH in a bulletin.

They also presented a statement reached by the General Assembly and the FIO Council on the measures by the US government that may affect the human rights of Ibero-Americans living there.

The statement called for the development and implementation of a plan of action aimed at defending the rights of migrants and protecting their families, according to the letters signed by Faria Costa.

Founded in 1995, the FIO is made up of 104 national, governmental, regional and local institutions from 20 countries that are dedicated to the promotion and protection of human rights, including the CNDH.

--IANS

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