A/HRC/37/34 disasters, climate change and environmental degradation, gender inequalities, separation from family, and lack of access to the rights to education, health, including sexual and reproductive health, decent work, or food and water. Migrants who are compelled to move are at greater risk of human rights violations throughout their migration (see A/HRC/31/35, para. 11). As noted above, in some circumstances, these drivers may sometimes give rise to refugee protection needs.16 B. Vulnerable situations associated with situations that migrants encounter during their journey and at destination 15. Migrants are often obliged to employ dangerous forms of transport or to travel in hazardous conditions. Many will make use of smugglers and other types of facilitator, some of whom may place them in situations of exploitation or subject them to other forms of abuse. Some may be at risk of trafficking as they move. During their journeys, migrants may lack water or adequate food, face violence or have no access to medical care. Many migrants spend long periods in transit countries, often in irregular and precarious conditions, unable to access justice and at risk of a range of human rights violations and abuses, including sexual and gender-based violence and treatment which may amount to torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. A range of practices may put the health and safety of migrants at risk and expose them to human rights violations. These include: closure of borders; denial of access to effective screening and identification; arbitrary rejection at the border; collective expulsion; violence by State officials and other actors (including criminals and civilian militias); cruel, inhumane or degrading reception conditions; denial of humanitarian assistance; and failure to separate the delivery of services from immigration enforcement. C. Vulnerable situations associated with a person’s identity, condition or circumstances 16. As they move, some migrants are more at risk of human rights violations and abuses than others. Some will experience discrimination due, inter alia, to their age, gender, ethnicity, race, nationality, religion, language, sexual orientation, gender identity or migration status. Some experience discrimination on several and often intersecting grounds. People who are living in poverty, including because they are subject to discrimination due to their economic position, are particularly at risk of human rights abuses in the context of migration. Generally, pregnant or nursing women, persons in poor health (including those living with HIV), persons with disabilities, older persons and children, including unaccompanied or separated children, are specifically at risk because of their physical or psychological condition. IV. Principles and guidelines 17. The international human rights framework that States have put in place provides protection to all persons, including to all migrants. However, the framework’s application to migrants who are in situations of vulnerability is often less clearly understood. States (and other stakeholders) therefore lack complete guidance on how to operationalize the framework in such situations. The principles and guidelines attempt to meet this need. They provide advice to States (and other stakeholders as relevant) on how they should implement their obligations to respect, protect and fulfil the human rights of migrants who are in 16 6 or stay arrangements may be particularly suited to providing flexible and speedy responses to such protection needs. See, on the latter, UNHCR, “Guidelines on temporary protection or stay arrangements”, February 2014, available at www.refworld.org/docid/52fba2404.html. See UNHCR, “Persons in need of international protection”, June 2017, available at www.refworld.org/docid/596787734.html.