A/HRC/56/60 37. The Special Rapporteur has previously highlighted the urgency of ensuring safe disembarkation policies and practices that fulfil the obligation to identify, assist and protect victims of trafficking, in particular children. In the report on her visit to Bangladesh, the Special Rapporteur commended all those involved in search and rescue at sea and in disembarkation to coastal areas and highlighted the positive obligation on the State and all actors to identify victims of trafficking and to ensure referral for specialized assistance and protection, including protection from the risks of retrafficking. 53 The Special Rapporteur also recognized the work carried out in providing best interests determinations for Rohingya children identified as possible victims of trafficking prior to return to families, but expressed concern that the involvement of family or community members and limited trust in authorities, as well as fear of reprisals, might lead to ongoing gaps in protection, underreporting and failures in the identification of victims of trafficking. 54 38. Measures taken to ensure protection of the rights of victims of trafficking on disembarkation should include pathways to residence and stay, including pathways to long-term residence and citizenship. Permission to stay should not be conditional upon cooperation in criminal proceedings. 39. The Special Rapporteur welcomes the findings of the Supreme Court of Cassation of Italy in the Sea-Watch case, in which it upheld the dismissal by the Tribunal of Agrigento of charges brought against the Captain of the Sea-Watch, Carola Rackete. The Court concluded that the obligation to rescue persons in distress at sea included the obligation to ensure disembarkation to a place of safety. Importantly, they held that a ship at sea could not be considered a “safe place” because it did not allow for the respect of the fundamental rights of rescued people on board. VI. Rights of the child 40. The Special Rapporteur is particularly concerned at the risks of trafficking in children, and failures to ensure protection of child victims at sea and on disembarkation. Unaccompanied and separated migrant and refugee children are particularly at risk. Urgent action is needed by States to ensure that the international legal obligations towards children, as set out in the Convention on the Rights of the Child and general comment No. 6 (2005) of the Committee on the Rights of the Child, are ensured in the prevention of trafficking and the protection of child victims of trafficking at sea. The Special Rapporteur highlights the obligations arising under the Convention on the Rights of the Child, specifically with respect to unaccompanied and separated asylum-seeking and migrant children, noting that, as recognized by the Committee on the Rights of the Child, there is often a link between trafficking and the situation of separated and unaccompanied children. 55 Specifically, those include the obligations to ensure non-discrimination and the best interests of the child. Those obligations continue to apply in the context of search and rescue operations, disembarkation and protection. The Special Rapporteur highlights concerns that asylum-seeking, migrant and refugee children, particularly those who are unaccompanied and separated from families and caregivers, are at high risk of trafficking, including at sea and on disembarkation. However, they are frequently hosted in unsafe accommodation centres, hotels or temporary lodgings, without guardians or protective environments. Child victims of trafficking may also be subject to detention in some States, in violation of the rights granted to children, who need special protection under international law, and contrary to the principle of non-punishment.56 Concerns in relation to pre-entry screening procedures allowing for detention of children have been raised by the Special Rapporteur in relation to the new pact on migration and asylum, stressing the obligations arising under the Convention on the Rights of the Child and 53 54 55 56 GE.24-06692 A/HRC/53/28/Add.1, para. 60. Ibid. Committee on the Rights of the Child, general comment No. 6 (2005), para. 23. Statement delivered by the Special Rapporteur to the Working Group on Trafficking in Persons (Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime), 2 October 2023 (Vienna). Available at www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/documents/issues/trafficking/statements/RecommendationsStatement-2023-COP-WG.pdf. 11