The human right of the irregular migrants in Europe

Summary:

Historically, the State has pledged to protect the rights of its citizens at home – for instance from torture or from exploitation – and of citizens of other states who enter the country lawfully. Where refugees flee persecution at the hands of their own state, international law requires other states to provide the protection denied at home.

This paper deals with another category: migrants who are not refugees or asylum seekers and who are in another country without the state’s consent. Perceptions of these irregular migrants are polarised. ‘Irregular migrant’ refers to non citizens who have no valid leave to enter and / or remain within a state. The countries from which they come often see this as migration out of necessity, not choice, and also as the source of remittances which support families and contribute to development.

‘Host’ states tend to see them as non citizens who are illegally in the country, and should be removed at the earliest opportunity. From a human rights perspective, migrants are entitled to protection under international law, regardless of any irregularity under national law. In practice, many irregular migrants are in fact outlaws in the original sense of that term: they live outside the law, and outside its protection, in ways which are described in this paper.