A/HRC/56/60 and Turbo, where migrants arrive to travel by sea to Acandí (municipality bordering Panama), Capurganá (town in Acandí) or directly to Panamanian towns (by using unregulated sea routes). Those three municipalities are located in an area controlled by an illegal armed group that controls the mixed movement routes. The Special Rapporteur highlighted the specific risks for unaccompanied children of trafficking for purposes of exploitation in criminal activities, sexual exploitation and forced labour. The Special Rapporteur notes that continued limited pathways for regular migration lead to people taking more dangerous routes and contribute to the expansion of criminal activities in the region. Changes in migration and asylum laws and policies in the United States and Mexico have contributed to fluctuations in the numbers of refugees and migrants taking the sea routes and the onward dangerous journey through the Darién Gap.23 The Special Rapporteur highlights the urgency of more support for host communities and a greater role for development actors and international financial institutions in supporting States in fulfilling protection obligations and taking action to prevent trafficking in persons. 18. The Special Rapporteur recalls the resolution on missing migrants and refugees in Africa and the impact on their families of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, in which the Commission “calls on the African Union (AU) to engage the European Union (EU) within the framework of the AU-EU Partnership for the EU to review its migration policies and practices to avoid their adverse consequences for African migrants, including enforced disappearances and death on the Mediterranean”.24 Despite such calls, disappearances and deaths have continued with impunity. III. Shared responsibility and questions of jurisdiction 19. Disputes regarding jurisdiction and a lack of willingness to accept responsibility contribute to increased risks and failures of prevention and protection at sea. It is critical to recall that States are responsible for the human rights of all persons within their jurisdiction, including within their territory and at borders and where they exercise effective power, control or authority,25 including at sea and on vessels.26 Any State exercising effective control over a vessel, including through search and rescue operations, is responsible for securing the human rights of passengers, regardless of their migration status. 27 Those include positive obligations to identify, assist and protect victims of trafficking, to prevent trafficking in persons and to ensure accountability for trafficking in persons at sea. In situations in which States have overlapping or transnational authority at sea, for example on the high seas or in designated search and rescue areas, all States must fulfil their obligations arising under international human rights law, including obligations relating to trafficking in persons. 28 States are required to coordinate effectively and to act together to realize those protection obligations, including to ensure that persons in distress at sea are taken to a place of safety. However, in practice, States often seek to avoid human rights obligations towards migrants at sea, including by transferring responsibility to other States and non-State actors. Reports of migrant vessels in distress in the Mediterranean experiencing difficulties in seeking to contact the European Border and Coast Guard Agency (Frontex) or the search and rescue authorities of individual European States are well documented.29 20. As the Special Rapporteur has previously highlighted in relation to jurisdiction and the scope of application of obligations relating to trafficking in persons, the positive 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 6 See www.cfr.org/article/crossing-darien-gap-migrants-risk-death-journey-us. African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights resolution 486. A/HRC/47/30, para. 38. See also A/HRC/53/28, para. 39. Committee on Enforced Disappearances, general comment No. 1 (2023), para. 31. OHCHR, Recommended Principles and Guidelines on Human Rights at International Borders (Geneva, 2014), principles 8 and 10 and guideline 4. See also United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, art. 98 (1). A/HRC/47/30, para. 38. (OHCHR), ���‘Lethal disregard’: search and rescue and the protection of migrants in the central Mediterranean Sea”, pp. 9–12. See also European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights, “June 2023 update – search and rescue operations in the Mediterranean and fundamental rights”, 11 October 2023. GE.24-06692