‘You are safe’
For migrants lost in the middle of the sea, after fleeing persecution and war, these three words mean all the world.
Many countries are still involved in illegal arms transfers despite having committed themselves to an international treaty to regulate the flow of such weapons, according to the ICRC. Hundreds of thousands of civilians are being killed, injured or forcibly displaced in conflicts fuelled by such transfers. “I am concerned about the gap… between the duty to ensure respect for international humanitarian law in arms transfers and the actual transfer practices of too many states,” said ICRC President Peter Maurer in a video delivered to states party to the Arms Trade Treaty, who were meeting in Mexico in August to decide on mechanisms for implementing the agreement.
Red Cross Red Crescent magazine goes on the road with migrants as they make the exhausting journey through the freezing mountain passes of northern Colombia.