UNITED NATIONS: Severely criticising the London tabloid, “The Sun”, for calling migrants ‘cockroaches,’ the United Nations human rights chief

Friday urged the British authorities and media to take steps to curb incitement to hatred by tabloid newspapers, in line with the country’s obligations under national and international law.

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, also called for a firmer line on racism to be taken by European countries which, he said, “under the guise of freedom of expression, are being allowed to feed a vicious cycle of vilification, intolerance and politicisation of migrants, as well as of marginalised European minorities such as the Roma.”

“The nasty underbelly of racism that is characterising the migration debate in an increasing number of European Union countries, has skewed the EU response to the crisis,” Mr Hussain said in a statement.

The Sun article that he referred to was published on April 17 and began with the words “Show me pictures of coffins, show me bodies floating in water, play violins and show me skinny people looking sad. I still don’t care.” Elsewhere in the article the columnist described migrants as “a plague of feral humans,” and said some British towns were “festering sores, plagued by swarms of migrants and asylum seekers shelling out benefits like Monopoly money.”

The Sun columnist also advocated using gunboats to stop migrants, threatening them with violence, and said “drilling a few holes in the bottom of anything suspiciously resembling a boat would be a good idea too.”

“The Nazi media described people their masters wanted to eliminate as rats and cockroaches. This type of language is clearly inflammatory and unacceptable, especially in a national newspaper. The Sun’s editors took an editorial decision to publish this article, and – if it is found in breach of the law – should be held responsible along with the author,” the rights chief added.

Published in Dawn, April 25th, 2015

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