United Nations, Nov 22: With three per cent of the
world`s people now living outside the country of their birth,
UN Secretary General Kofi Annan urged nations worried
about terror not to clamp down too hard on immigration.
Singling out the US effort to tighten its borders as part
of its anti-terror campaign, Annan said the "laws of supply
and demand" mean that people will always try to get around
such measures.
"Stronger borders are not necessarily smarter ones," he
said in a policy address at Columbia University in New York.
"The more we try to deal with migration simply by
clamping down on it with tighter border controls, the more we
find that human rights are sacrificed."
Annan said worries about security as well as jobs and
social services were legitimate concerns but stressed that the
solutions "do not lie in halting migration, a policy that is
bound to fail."
He said migrant workers worldwide sent USD 88 billion
back to their home countries last year, more than
those nations received in international aid.
"Migration is one of the tools we have to help put more
of the world`s people on the right side of - and ultimately
to eliminate - the vast divides that exist today
between poor and rich and between fettered and free," he said.
"While I understand this nation`s need to ensure that
those who come here are not a threat to homeland security, it
would be a tragedy if this diverse country were to deprive
itself" of the benefits brought by foreigners, he said.
Bureau Report
