Vincent Cochetel, a United Nations High Commissioner of Refugees (UNHCR) official, shared a controversial take this week, explicitly accusing the mothers of missing migrant children of being responsible for their fate.
The UNHCR special envoy for the western and central Mediterranean accusatory message was a reaction to a tweet about a march in Zarzis, Tunisia, to commemorate the disappeared migrants, which was led by mothers of the missing children, the city’s fishermen, and activists supporters.
Grieving for the loss. But the same mothers had no problem encouraging or funding their children to embark on those dangerous journeys. Like in Senegal, symbolically prosecuting parents for putting at risk their children could trigger serious attitudinal change on death journeys. https://t.co/lRAwT4MRWA
— vincent cochetel (@cochetel) September 6, 2022
Cochetel’s tweet was qualified by several users of the platform as “insensitive and violent.”
The Alarm-Phone project, an initiative that provides a hotline for migrants crossing the Mediterranean sea, considered the comment of the special envoy “cynical” noting that it’s “showing no understanding of the many complex reasons why people embark on dangerous journeys.”
The initiative also called for the resignation of Crochetel, adding in the same tweet they’ve published that he “wouldn’t dare to say this to their faces. Resign!”
The UNHCR responded as well to the inquiries on Cochetel’s recent tweet by releasing an official statement apologizing for “the comments made yesterday by our Special Envoy for the Western & Central Mediterranean situation. They do not reflect UNHCR’s position in any way possible and we do not support the prosecution of family members who have lost their loved ones.”
The UN agency also took the opportunity to extend “its deepest condolences to all those affected by the recent shipwrecks. We stand in solidarity with all the victims and those who lost their children in these awful tragedies, as we have always done.”
Following the massive reactions to his “insensitive” comment, Cochetel apologized on a second tweet and said he experienced “frustration at seeing so many lives lost and the impunity the smugglers enjoy, does not justify my words.”
Reflecting on the strong reactions to my previous tweets, my comments were inappropriate. I am sorry especially to the mothers who have lost their children. My frustration at seeing so many lives lost and the impunity the smugglers enjoy, does not justify my words. https://t.co/v7RkgY2ZXk
— vincent cochetel (@cochetel) September 7, 2022
The International organization of migrants’s data shows that 24,598 migrants are considered dead or missing since 2014.
The same data states that 1264 cases, 45 of which are children have been recorded since the beginning of this ongoing year.
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