A/HRC/31/35 human rights impact of migrant smuggling;77 immigration detention in transit and alternatives to detention;78 and violence against migrants and fatalities in transit.79 V. Recommendations 66. The High Commissioner recommends that effective measures be put in place to address the human rights protection gap for migrants in transit, including those who move in large movements. States should sign, ratify and implement all core international human rights instruments and other relevant standards of international refugee law, criminal law, labour law and the law of the sea and ensure that all relevant laws, regulations and administrative practices protect, respect and fulfil the human rights of all migrants in transit without discrimination. In addition, States are encouraged to ensure that migrants have access to regular, safe and affordable channels for migration as well as access to humanitarian assistance and protection in order to reduce opportunities for abuse and violations of the human rights of migrants in transit. The situation of children and other groups that can be discriminated against on multiple grounds (such as women at risk) should receive particular scrutiny. 67. The High Commissioner recommends that States and other stakeholders as relevant, should: (a) Enable the access of all migrants in transit to justice and to effective remedies, including in cases of violence and abuse, whether inflicted by officials or by private individuals, groups or institutions; (b) Establish, operate and maintain adequate and effective rescue services at all international borders, including search and rescue at sea services in coastal States; (c) Ensure that returns from all areas where the State exercises jurisdiction or effective control, including extraterritorially, are only carried out in accordance with international law and with due procedural guarantees. States should make every effort to secure the sustainability of returns; (d) Develop mechanisms to assess the individual situation of migrants in transit, without discrimination, and to prevent their expulsion until such an assessment has been completed in order to, inter alia, uphold the principles of nonrefoulement and the prohibition of collective expulsion; (e) Ensure that migrants in transit who are victims of violence, physical and mental abuse and exploitation are referred to the appropriate services, including medical and psychosocial services; and provide migrants, in particular girls and 77 78 79 More research is needed on the complex dynamics linking migrants’ decisions, smugglers’ practices and policy responses. See Jacob Townsend and Christel Oomen, Before the Boat: Understanding the Migrant Journey, (Brussels, Migration Policy Institute, 2015), p. 13. Available from www.migrationpolicy.org/node/15288. The Global Detention Project has highlighted a severe lack of information about the number of migrants and asylum seekers in detention across Europe. See Global Detention Project, The Uncounted: Detention of Migrants and Asylum Seekers in Europe, 2015. UNODC observed that data and information is particularly required on the root causes of violence against migrants and their families and on patterns of migration. See UNODC and International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, Combating violence against migrants: Criminal justice measures to prevent, investigate, prosecute and punish violence against migrants, migrant workers and their families and to protect victims (Vienna, 2015). 17