Migration is the movement of people from one place to live in another.
who moved without legal permission, and refugees are those
Emigrants leave their country, while immigrants enter a country.
Migration impacts on both the place left behind, and on the place where
migrants settle. People have many reasons why they might want to move
from one place to another. These reasons may be economic, social,
political or environmental. For migration to take place there are usually
push factors and pull factors at work.
International migration involves people crossing state boundaries and
staying in the host state for a minimum length of time.[1] Migration
occurs for many reasons. The overwhelming majority of people migrate
internationally for reasons related to work, family and study – involving
migration processes that largely occur without fundamentally
challenging either migrants or the countries they enter. In contrast, other
people leave their homes and countries for a range of compelling and
sometimes tragic reasons, such as conflict, persecution and disaster.
Human migration is the movement of people from one place to another
with the intentions of settling, permanently or temporarily at a new
location (geographic region). The movement is often over long
distances and from one country to another, but internal migration is also
possible; indeed, this is the dominant form globally. People may migrate
as individuals, in family units or in large groups. There are four major
forms of migration: invasion, conquest, colonization and immigration.
KINDS OF MIGRATION
1. Internal migration. This refers to a change of residence within
national boundaries, such as between states, provinces, cities, or
municipalities. An internal migrant is someone who moves to a
different administrative territory.
2. International migration. This refers to change of residence over
national boundaries. An international migrant is someone who
moves to a different country. International migrants are further
classified as legal immigrants, illegal immigrants, and refugees.
Legal immigrants are those who moved with the legal
permission of the receiver nation, illegal immigrants are those
crossed an international boundary to escape persecution.
WHO IS A MIGRANT
Are those who cross borders either because they were compelled to or
because they chose to do so voluntarily.
Some human rights bodies and experts differentiate between
international migrants and internal migrants, also known as internally
displaced persons, and between migrants who were forced to move and
migrants who voluntarily moved to improve their situation. Therefore,
generally, there are four categories of mobile persons to which
international law may refer: people who have moved voluntarily within
one State for the purpose of improving their situation, people who were
compelled to move internally within one State, people who moved
voluntarily across a border for the purpose of improving their situation,
and people who were compelled to move across a border.
MIGRANT WORKER
a person who is to be engaged, is engaged or has been engaged in a
remunerated activity in a State of which he or she is not a national.”
Non-documented Migrant Worker
An irregular migrant worker, or a non-documented migrant worker,
may be defined as a person who enters a country without authorization
for the purpose of obtaining employment.
Refugee
The 1951 Refugee Convention defines a refugee as a person who has a
“well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion,
nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion,
is outside the country of his nationality, and is unable to, or owing to
such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country.”
A refugee, generally speaking, is a displaced person who has been
forced to cross national boundaries and who cannot return home safely
(for more detail see legal definition). Such a person may be called
an asylum seeker until granted refugee status by the contracting state or
the UNHCR[2] if they formally make a claim for asylum.[3
Smuggled Person
Article 3(a) of the UN Protocol against the Smuggling of Migrants by
Land, Sea and Air defines smuggling as the “procurement, in order
to obtain, directly or indirectly, a financial or other material benefit,
of the illegal entry of a person into a State Party of which th person is
not a national or a permanent resident.” Unlike trafficking in
persons, smuggling does not require exploitation or coercion and
necessarily requires the crossing of a border
ASYLUM SEEKER
An asylum seeker (also rarely called an asylee applicant) is a person
who flees their home country, enters another country and applies
for asylum, i.e. the right to international protection, in this other country.
An asylum seeker is a type of migrant and may be a refugee, a displaced
person, but not an economic migrant. Migrants are not necessarily
asylum seekers. A person becomes an asylum seeker by making a
formal application for the right to remain in another country and keeps
that status until the application has been concluded. The applicant
becomes an "asylee" if their claim is accepted and asylum is granted.
Stateless Person
Article 1 of the UN Convention relating to the Status of Stateless
Persons (Statelessness Convention) defines a stateless person as “a
person who is not considered as a national by any State under the
operation of its law.” The Statelessness Convention is the only
international instrument that protects the treatment of stateless
persons. See UN High Commissioner on Refugees, Handbook on
Protection of Stateless Persons (2014), para. 3. States parties to the
Statelessness Convention have the obligation to guarantee stateless
persons certain rights, including but not limited to the right to non-
discrimination (Article 3); the right to a personal status (Article 12); the
right to identity papers (Article 27) and travel documents (Article 28);
and the right to due process, particularly with respect to expulsion
proceedings (Article 31). The UN Convention on the Reduction of
Statelessness details how a State can confer “its nationality to a person
born in its territory who would otherwise be stateless.”
Trafficked Person
Article 3(a) of the UN Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish
Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children defines
trafficking in persons as: The recruitment, transportation, transfer,
harboring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or
other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the
abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or
receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person
having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation.
WHAT RIGHTS DO MIGRANTS HAVE?
1. Right to Life
All migrants have a right to life, and States have an obligation to
ensure that no migrant is arbitrarily deprived of this right. States should
prosecute right to life violations, including extrajudicial killings that
take place during a migrant’s journey from the country of origin to the
country of destination and vice versa
2. Equality and Non-Discrimination
International human rights law guarantees freedom from discrimination
in the enjoyment of human rights for all people, including migrants. For
example, Article 2(2) of the International Covenant on Economic,
Social and Cultural Rights states, “The States Parties to the present
Covenant undertake to guarantee that the rights enunciated in the
present Covenant will be exercised without discrimination of any kind
as to race, color, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion,
national or social origin, property, birth or other status.”

3. Protection against Arbitrary Arrest and Detention
Individuals, including migrants, should not be subjected to arbitrary
arrest or detention under international human rights law. Under Article
9 of the ICCPR, a State must not arbitrarily arrest and detain an
individual, and the State must show that other less intrusive measures
besides detention have been considered and found to be insufficient to
prove detention is not arbitrary. The prolonged detention of a migrant is
not justified simply by the need to wait for an entry permit or until the
end of removal proceedings when reporting obligations or other
requirements would be less intrusive measures to ensure that the
migrant’s situation complies with domestic law.
4. Protection against Torture or Inhuman Treatment
The prohibition of torture is a jus cogens or peremptory norm of
international law, which means that States have an obligation to enforce
the prohibition of torture even if that State has not ratified a relevant
treaty.
5. Non-Refoulement
Non-refoulement, a basic principle of refugee law, refers to the
obligation of States not to refoule, account of his race, religion,
nationality, membership in a particular social group or political
opinion.” Non-refoulement is universally acknowledged as a human
right. It is expressly stated in human rights treaties such as Article 3 of
the Convention against Torture and Article 22(8) of the American
Convention on Human Rights.
6. Prohibition against Collective Expulsion
The prohibition of collective expulsion of aliens is part of customary
international law, and, therefore, every State, regardless of the
international treaties it has ratified, is still bound by the obligation to
uphold the prohibition
7. Protection against Labor Exploitation
Migrants are protected against labor exploitation under ILO
conventions, the ICRMW, and other major human rights treaties. Article
11 of the ICRMW explicitly prohibits forced labor, slavery, and
servitude. Article 8 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political
Rights states that no one shall be held in slavery or servitude. States have
an obligation to take measures to prevent all forms of forced or
compulsory labor by migrant workers, which includes eliminating the
use of illegal confinement and withholding travel documents as a
means to force migrants into compulsory labor.
8. Right to Social Security
Article 27 of the ICRMW outlines the right to social security and notes
that all migrant workers and their families, regardless of their status,
have the right to receive the same treatment as
individuals who have made contributions with respect to that benefit.
9. Right to Highest Attainable Standard of Physical and Mental
Health
The ICRMW under Article 28 only requires States to provide migrant
workers and their families with medical care that is urgently needed to
save their lives on the same basis as nationals, but a law.
10. Right to Primary Education
States have an obligation to provide free and compulsory primary
education at public institutions for all children.
11. Right to Enjoy Culture in Community with Others
Under Article 27 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political
Rights, migrants who belong to an ethnic, religious, or linguistic
minority group have the right to enjoy, practice, and use their culture,
religion, and language together with other members of their community.
Duties of States towards refugees and
migrants under the International Covenant
on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
States parties have a duty to respect the right to health by ensuring that all
persons, including migrants, have equal access to preventive, curative and
palliative health services, regardless of their legal status and documentation.