[STATEMENT] IMA Statement on International Human Rights Day
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International Migrants Alliance (IMA)
Statement on International Human Rights Day
December 10, 2025
On this International Human Rights Day, the International Migrants Alliance believes it is necessary to reaffirm a message that each year becomes more urgent to emphasize: Migrants Rights are Human Rights. Among these rights, which states must recognize and protect, are those related to the dignity, security, equality and freedom of persons. The rights to live, work, move, and seek environments of greater safety and well-being are fundamental human rights, and no government or border should strip people of these protections.
Yet across the world, while restrictions on the movement of goods and capital are being lifted, walls and discrimination are being reinforced for migrants, refugees, and displaced peoples, who continue to face deepening hardships in accessing basic rights, from documentation to decent work, health, education, social security and others; all that expose the asymmetry of globalization and the cruelty of a global system built on neoliberal exploitation and imperialist domination.
The global economic crisis has worsened to such an extent that millions are forced to leave their homelands in search of survival. Neoliberal policies, corporate plunder, privatization, landlessness, and poverty wages have devastated economies in the Global South. Imperialism uses anti-crime operations against organized crime and drug trafficking to sow fear, create a climate of impunity and justify the installation of a police state in the Western Hemisphere. As workers migrate out of desperation, they often end up in destination countries where they are subjected to harsh conditions, long hours, discrimination, unsafe workplaces, and constant repression.
In the United States, the return to the government of neo-fascist Donald Trump has intensified the war on migrants. His administration has expanded raids, detentions, and deportations of immigrants, treating them as criminals rather than as human beings fleeing economic devastation, violence, and instability. Migrants and asylum seekers are subjected to abusive and arbitrary detention in inhumane conditions, with threats of confinement in isolation prisons such as Guantánamo Bay or in El Salvador's Terrorism and confinement center (CECOT).The expulsion of migrants to third countries, where they have not lived, often leads not only to separation from their family circles, but also from any social and community support networks
Widespread raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement under this new Trump administration, have terrorized entire neighborhoods, in U.S. cities creating fear and despair among migrant communities. These policies have fueled a social climate that encourages racism, xenophobia, and violence. By teaching people to hate, the state legitimizes hate crimes and deepens divisions within society.
The global refugee crisis continues to escalate as imperialist wars and conflicts uproot entire populations. In Palestine, the ongoing U.S.-backed Israeli genocide has turned millions into refugees, with no end in sight. Effects of the Sudan conflict (1) Ethnic cleansing between warring religious communities (2) Genocide of children and women. (3) Economic plunder of newly discovered mines Sudan’s civil war, shaped by competing imperialist interests, has forced millions to flee their homes. In the Democratic Republic of Congo, multinational corporations and armed groups continue to exploit mineral-rich lands, creating violence and instability that push communities into displacement. The Levant region remains engulfed in violence, from Syria to Lebanon, while in Myanmar and other parts of Asia, ethnic cleansing, military dictatorship, and state violence continue to produce new waves of refugees. Every bomb dropped, every occupation supported, and every dictatorship propped up by imperial powers contributes to the growing number of displaced peoples worldwide.
On this International Human Rights Day, the International Migrants Alliance renews its call for systemic change. We demand an end to neoliberal economic policies that force migration. We demand an end to the criminalization of migrants and to agencies like ICE that exist solely to terrorize communities. We call for the protection, legal recognition, and full rights of all migrants, refugees, and displaced peoples. We demand an end to wars in Palestine, Sudan, Congo, Myanmar, and all regions where imperialist aggression fuels violence and displacement. We call on the peoples of the world to stand united against racism, xenophobia, and the hate that governments use to divide us.
Migrants and refugees will continue to resist. We will continue to organize. Our struggles are interconnected with the struggles of all oppressed peoples fighting for land, livelihood, justice, and peace.
Migrant Rights Are Human Rights. We demand an end to wars and imperialist threats to the peoples of peace. Stop the Raids and Illegal Deportations. End Exploitation and Imperialism. Long Live International Solidarity.
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