Spokesperson for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) Rupert Colville reacted to US President Donald Trump’s alleged comments referring to El Salvador, Haiti and African countries as “shithole countries” during a meeting at UN headquarters in Geneva, Friday.
“These are shocking and shameful comments from the President of the United States. Sorry, but there is no other word one can use but ‘racist’. You cannot dismiss entire countries and continents as ‘shitholes’ whose entire populations, who are not white, are therefore not welcome,” stated Colville.
The UN-OHCHR spokesperson continued, “This is not just a story about vulgar language, it is about opening the door wider to humanity’s worst side, about validating and encouraging racism and xenophobia that will potentially disrupt and destroy the lives of many people.”
“These are human beings, not commodities,” stated Colville, adding that the comments “go against the universal values the world has been striving so hard to establish since World War II.”
Donald Trump is alleged to have said “why are we having all these people from shithole countries come here?” during a Thursday Oval Office meeting with a handful of members of the House and Senate. He allegedly then added “we should bring in more people from places like Norway.” Trump reportedly denied making such comments on Friday, during a meeting in which he rejected a bipartisan deal on the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals programme.