A/HRC/18/54 I. Introduction 1. In its resolution 17/22, the Human Rights Council requested the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) to pay particular attention to the situation of migrants and asylum-seekers fleeing recent events in North Africa and to report to the Council at its eighteenth session. Accordingly, on 12 July 2011, OHCHR addressed a note verbale to Member States and intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations in which it sought their views and information. Written submissions were received from a small number of States, intergovernmental organizations, and non-governmental organizations.1 In addition, OHCHR has relied on other credible governmental and nongovernmental sources with knowledge of the situation of migrants and asylum-seekers described in resolution 17/22. The present report will seek to describe the human rights implications of the movement of migrants and asylum-seekers fleeing recent events in North Africa during the period between January and August 2011.2 2. As events in the Middle East and North Africa unfolded in early 2011, the momentous political changes taking place in countries across the region were accompanied by significant population movements within and out of the region. In these flows were various groups of persons on the move, including refugees and asylum-seekers, migrant workers, stateless persons, trafficked and smuggled persons, unaccompanied and separated children, and migrants in search of reunification with family, or those in search of economic opportunity. Migrants moved within both regular and irregular channels. Some moved between different legal categories as their situation and need for protection changed during the course of their journey. 3. The protection and promotion of the human rights of all migrants is a priority of OHCHR. In her opening address to the Human Rights Council at its seventeenth session, the High Commissioner highlighted the extreme vulnerability of migrants to human rights violations, particularly in the context of recent events in North Africa. Human rights mechanisms have also expressed similar concerns; for example, in April 2011, the Committee on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families expressed its alarm at the situation of thousands of migrant workers and their families who had fled armed conflict in the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya and were staying in overcrowded transit centres without access to basic amenities, or who were subject to dangerous interception at sea and at inland borders.3 4. The armed conflict in the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, which broke out late in February 2011, was the main cause of population movement in the region. On 7 August 2011, it was 1 2 3 Submissions were received from the Governments of Canada, Greece, Malta and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, the European Union, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the International Organization for Migration (IOM), the International Labour Organization (ILO), the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, Amnesty International, the International Federation for Human Rights, Caritas Italiana and the International Commission on Eritrean Refugees. While the number of internally displaced persons is also significant (as at 7 July 2011, the Office of the Coordinator for Humanitarian Affairs reported that 218,000 people were internally displaced in the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya), the present report will focus on the cross-border movement of displaced persons and migrants. “UN Committee alarmed by disastrous consequences of Libyan armed conflict for migrant workers’ rights”, OHCHR press release, 13 April 2011. 3