UNITED NATIONS (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 06th June, 2019) The US authorities should drop charges against a humanitarian aid worker who provided assistance to undocumented migrants in the desert in the US state of Arizona, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) experts said in a press release.
"Providing humanitarian aid is not a crime. We urge the US authorities to immediately drop all charges against Scott Warren," the human rights experts said in the release on Wednesday.
Scott Warren, a US citizen who worked for the humanitarian organization No More Deaths, was arrested by Border Patrol agents in January 2018 while assisting two undocumented migrants at a humanitarian shelter in the Sonora Desert, the release said.
Warren faces up to 20 years in prison on charges of harboring and conspiring to transport and harbor migrants.
The release pointed out that Warren's arrest came hours after the No More Deaths released a report which described alleged systematic destruction of humanitarian supplies, harassment, intimidation and surveillance by Border Patrol agents against aid workers.
"The prosecution of Scott Warren represents an unacceptable escalation of existing patterns criminalizing migrant rights defenders along the migrant caravan routes," the human rights experts said.
The OHCHR experts are in contact with the US authorities regarding the matter, the release said.
According to the OHCHR, more than 7,000 migrants or asylum seekers have died over the last 20 years attempting to make their way to the United States through Arizona's migrant corridors, one of the deadliest path-way.
US President Donald Trump has called the surge of migrant arrivals a crisis and declared a national emergency in order to secure funds to build a border wall to stop the migrant flow.
