A/HRC/7/12 page 22 68. States should take measures to further promote legal migratory channels to encourage regular labour mobility flows, including schemes for temporary and circular migration and the movement of skilled and semi-skilled labour under regional mechanisms for the free movement of labour. Where provisions for the free movement of persons already exist at the regional level, States should take measures to ensure the proper institutional structures are in place to implement such provisions, with particular regard to the human rights protections afforded to migrants. 69. States should take all measures to inform officials involved in potential interdiction at sea operations of the rights and protections afforded to migrants in transit, including those that are irregular. The rescue of persons in distress at sea is not only an obligation under maritime law but also a humanitarian necessity, regardless of the legal status of those found or their reasons for travelling by sea. Trafficked persons and other vulnerable groups such as separated children and asylum-seekers should receive specific assistance, including necessary health care at reception. 70. States should take measures to inform potential migrants about the risks associated with smuggling and trafficking operations, as well as the rights afforded to migrants even if in an irregular situation, particularly if detention is used. Particular attention should be paid to the gender-specific stigmatization associated with irregular migration and to the exploitation of children in all forms. 71. States should take measures to further understand and inform border officials, detention centre officials, and police and military officers about the distinctions between smuggled migrants, victims of trafficking, and other irregular migrants who potentially fall into both categories. All efforts should be made to fully and without prejudice investigate cases on an individual basis, provide due process guarantees and consular assistance, and to provide assistance to irregular migrants in their safe return, where applicable. Data and analysis 72. States should bolster their ability to analyse data about migration policy. In support of individual States’ domestic policies, laws and practices that have cross-border effects, an observatory could be established to compile accurate statistical and related data and to provide independent, impartial and expert analyses of key aspects of migration policy in order to discern their successes and deficiencies. 73. States should take further measures to enhance annual quantitative data on labour demand by host countries, which is the driving force behind economic migration, in an effort to better regulate the supply of labour migrants with the needs of host countries. Host countries and countries of origin each need to identify, respectively, current and projected labour supply shortages and surpluses by economic sector, occupation, region and province; furthermore, differentiation between labour shortages that are structural and those that are seasonal or otherwise temporary is important for designing and implementing effective labour migration policies.