Global: UN officials call for respect for rights of migrants

With mounting unemployment spurring discrimination and the politics of polarisation on the rise, United Nations officials have decried the human rights violations, xenophobia, and exploitation faced by many of the world's 214 million international migrants. 'It is important to recall, particularly in these turbulent times, the fundamental role that migrants play in strengthening the global economy,' Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in a message marking International Migrants Day, calling on the very many States that have yet to do so to ratify the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Their Families.