Cyfanfyd

UN Celebrates International Migrants Day

On 18 December, The United Nations will celebrate International Migrants Day – a chance to champion the positive contributions to development that are made by the free movement of people on the international stage. It’s also a chance to underline the basic human rights and freedoms of migrants.

This comes at a time where immigration is, yet again, at the fore of international politics. Last month the Prime Minister, David Cameron, defended his tough plans for migrants from Romania and Bulgaria, which include the restriction of benefits and reduced access to the NHS.

Mr Cameron received significant criticism from Brussels on the issue, with speculation that he was responding to right-leaning back benchers and UKIP promoted hysteria over immigration.

The European commissioner for employment, social affairs and inclusion, László Andor, told the Observer that, "there is a serious risk of pandering to knee-jerk xenophobia. Blaming poor people or migrants for hardships at the time of economic crisis is not entirely unknown, but it is not intelligent politics in my view.

"I think it would be more responsible to confront mistaken perceptions about immigration from other EU countries and so-called 'benefit tourism', and instead to explain the facts.”