A/HRC/4/30 page 22 nets.62 Many arrive in a terrible condition, too weak to walk or stand and chronically undernourished. Yet most of them are detained and held in processing or detention centres, before being forcibly repatriated to their own countries. The response of Europeans is increasingly militarized to control immigration and patrol the borders. The European Union has set up rapid reaction teams of border guards in a new institution called Frontex. Frontex’s first Operation Hera II involved patrol boats, airplanes and helicopters from Spain, Italy, Finland and Portugal operating along the borders of Mauritania, Senegal and Cape Verde to intercept boats and return them immediately to shore.63 61. The European Governments are not the only ones who see the drama of migration as primarily a military and police problem. Hundreds of thousands of Mexicans and other Latin Americans attempt to cross the border into the United States. When tens of thousands of people were arrested trying to cross illegally the border during 2005 and 2006, President Bush signed into law the Secure Fence Act which included plans to build a 1,125 km fence to prevent people from illegally crossing the border.64 Australia has also been criticized for the tightening of its migration and asylum policies.65 B. The need to recognize refugees from hunger 62. The rights of refugees are legally protected under the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees. Elaborated in the aftermath of the Second World War to protect people fleeing from communist countries, the objective of international refugee law was to protect people who had a well-founded fear of persecution, understood as severe violations of their civil and political rights. Legal developments at the regional level, in particular in Africa and Latin America, have broadened the concept to protect those escaping generalized violence, foreign aggression, internal conflicts, massive violation of human rights or other circumstances seriously disturbing public order. Many States in the past 50 years have also applied the Convention of 1951 to other asylum-seekers, such as the “person considered worthy of receiving asylum for humanitarian reasons” (Declaration on Territorial Asylum of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe, 1977). And UNHCR has in practice considerably broadened the categories of people of concern to it, to assist and protect today internally displaced persons (IDPs), stateless people or asylum-seekers.66 Yet, violations of economic, social and cultural rights, including the right to be free from hunger, have never been really taken into account. 63. The Special Rapporteur insists on this crucial point: refugees from hunger should not be confused with other categories of so-called “economic refugees”. An economic refugee may be 62 BBC News, 24 October 2006 http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/talking_point/5404816.stm. 63 BBC News, 10 September 2006 http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/europe/5331896.stm. 64 BBC News, 27 October 2006 http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/americas/6090060.stm. 65 Human Rights Watch http://hrw.org/english/docs/2006/08/11/austra13964.htm. 66 See note 47 above.