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Amnesty International: Much of the world is not a good place

Amnesty International has issued its annual Report for 2013.   It doesn't make for happy reading.

"Amnesty International says the world has become an increasingly dangerous place for refugees and migrants.

In its annual report, the group said millions were forced to live on the margins of society and allowed to be the targets of "populist rhetoric".

Amnesty said governments were more interested in protecting their own borders than the rights of migrants."
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 "The failure to address conflict situations effectively is creating a global underclass," said Salil Shetty, Amnesty's Secretary General.

"The rights of those fleeing conflict are unprotected. Too many governments are abusing human rights in the name of immigration control - going well beyond legitimate border control measures."

Increasingly, there is very little that governments and corporations can do in hiding behind 'sovereign' boundaries”

He added: "These measures not only affect people fleeing conflict. Millions of migrants are being driven into abusive situations, including forced labour and sexual abuse, because of anti-immigration policies which means they can be exploited with impunity. Much of this is fuelled by populist rhetoric that targets refugees and migrants for governments' domestic difficulties."

The report singled out the European Union, saying it implemented border control measures "that put the lives of migrants and asylum-seekers at risk and fails to guarantee the safety of those fleeing conflict and persecution".

"Around the world, migrants and asylum-seekers are regularly locked up in detention centres and in worst case scenarios are held in metal crates or even shipping containers," the report said."
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 "The report says 101 countries repressed their people's rights to freedom of expression in 2012, up from 91 out of 155 countries recorded in 2011.

In its summary of events in 2012, Amnesty says numerous nations have failed to address the abuse of women."

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