United Nations, April 25 (RHC)-- The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights has called on the British government to take necessary measures against the tabloid newspapers that incite racial hatred.

"This vicious verbal assault on migrants and asylum seekers in the UK tabloid press has continued unchallenged under the law for far too long," said Zeid Raad al Hussein on Friday, stressing that under Article 20 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, "Any advocacy of national, racial or religious hatred that constitutes incitement to discrimination, hostility or violence shall be prohibited by law."

Hussein made the remarks in reaction to a recent controversial article published in The Sun which called migrants "cockroaches." The UN rights chief compared the racist content of the article to the discourse employed by Nazis during World War II and the Rwandan criminals at the time of the 1994 genocide.

”The Nazi media described people their masters wanted to eliminate as rats and cockroaches. This type of language is clearly inflammatory and unacceptable, especially in a national newspaper. The Sun's editors took an editorial decision to publish this article, and -- if it is found in breach of the law -- should be held responsible along with the author."

Hussein stated that the article can never be justified under the pretext of the freedom of expression, since it just promotes "a vicious cycle of vilification, intolerance and politicization of migrants, as well as of marginalized European minorities such as the Roma" throughout the continent. He also said that the British media try to "demonize" migrants and thus intentionally spread "grossly distorted" images of asylum seekers.