【人权机构动态】联合国专家警告说，除非西班牙季节性移民工人的生活条件得到迅速改善，否则将面临生命危险

联合国专家警告说，除非西班牙季节性移民工人的生活条件得到迅速改善，否则将面临生命危险

日内瓦（2020年7月24日）-联合国专家今天说，当地政府必须立即改善季节性移民工人在西班牙草莓镇周围棚户区的恶劣条件，以免人们死亡。

在过去的一周中，南部赫尔瓦省的莱佩市和卢塞纳德尔波多市的非正式定居点发生三起火灾，摧毁了工人们抵达西班牙时唯一的替代住所。迄今为止，地方政府一直无视目前被公开的170多人。极端贫困与人权问题特别报告员奥利维尔·德·舒特（Olivier De Schutter）说，一些人失去了文件和财产，更加脆弱。

德舒特说：“这些事件进一步凸显了迫切需要规范移民工人的工作条件，从而确保体面的工作和住房条件。” “地方政府，农业雇主和公司需要以紧急和协调的方式寻求解决方案，以结束季节性农业工人生活的退化状况。”

6月，特别报告员呼吁当局确保向移民工人提供符合国际标准的保障条件，包括获得适当医疗保健的条件。一个月后，这种情况每天都以惊人的速度恶化，在COVID-19大流行中更是雪上加霜。

专家说：“棚户区火灾和不人道状况的现实再也不能容忍了。” “地方政府沉默了太久了，现在需要及时作出适当的反应。”

上周发生大火后，德舒特对西班牙国家人权机构（Defensor Del Pueblo）进行的调查表示欢迎。他说：“监察员正在让人们看到一个被忽视的人道主义问题和一个需要解决的局势。”

在过去的一个月中，专家就这些问题与西班牙政府和有关公司进行了联系。

英文原文

Lives at risk unless conditions for Spain’s seasonal migrant workers are rapidly improved, UN expert warns

GENEVA (24 July 2020) – Local governments must immediately improve deplorable conditions seasonal migrant workers endure in shanty towns around Spain’s strawberry townships before people die, a UN expert said today.

In the past week, three fires in the informal settlements in the municipalities of Lepe and Lucena del Puerto, in the southern province of Huelva, have destroyed the workers’ only alternative accommodation when they arrive in Spain. Local governments have so far ignored the more than 170 people now left out in the open.  Some have lost their papers and belongings and are even more vulnerable, said Olivier De Schutter, the Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights.

“These incidents further highlight the urgent need to regularise the working conditions of migrant workers and thus to ensure decent working and housing conditions,” De Schutter said. “Local administrations, agricultural employers and companies need to seek in an urgent and coordinated manner a solution to end the situation of degradation in which seasonal agricultural workers live.”

In June, the Special Rapporteur called on the authorities to ensure that migrant workers were guaranteed conditions, including access to adequate healthcare, that meet international standards. A month later, the situation is deteriorating alarmingly each day, made worse amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

“This reality of fires and inhumane conditions in the shanty towns cannot be tolerated any longer,” the expert said. “Local governments have remained silent for too long and need to provide now a timely and adequate response.”

De Schutter welcomed ongoing investigations by the Defensor Del Pueblo, the Spanish national human rights institution, after last week’s fires. “The Ombudsman is giving visibility to a neglected humanitarian problem and to a situation that needs to be solved,” he said.

The expert has been in contact in the past month with the Government of Spain and concerned companies on these issues.