Protecting the Rights of Migrants: The Challenges and the Prospects

Abstract

Migration is a fundamental human process often involving the precarious movement of people across borders. This has implications for human rights. Under the various international human rights laws, human rights are inherent to all human beings and are not tied to one’s citizenship or nationality. Therefore, the very presence of all categories of migrants within a State's jurisdiction imposes obligations on the State to acknowledge their presence, and allow them to claim their human rights. Apart from the general human rights laws, other international laws were enacted to specifically protect the rights of many groups of migrants. Despite this, migrants encounter various challenges in the process of migration and in destination countries particularly the migrants that are of irregular status (undocumented migrants). Towards this end, this paper examines the major global international instruments for protecting the human rights of international migrants and the challenges that the migrants often encounter with the aim of identifying the factors responsible for the inadequate protection of migrants' rights. The article proposes that treaty bodies should systematically mandate States' Parties to integrate the specific rights of migrants into national plans of action on human rights, enforce immigration laws in line with the principles of human rights and the rule of law, and provide effective border security and regional engagement so as to discourage illegal migration. Keywords: Migration, Human Rights, Protection, International Framework, Challenges, Prospects. DOI: 10.7176/JLPG/105-12 Publication date: January 31 st 2021