Journal of Legal Research

Journal of Legal Research

Protection of Irregular Migrant Workers in Light of General Comment No. 2 of the Committee on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families

Document Type : Original Article

Authors
1 PhD student in Public International Law, Faculty of Law and Political Science, Allameh Tabatabae'i University, Tehran, Iran.
2 M.A. in International Law, Faculty of Law, University of Judicial Sciences and Administrative Services, Tehran, Iran.
Abstract
The growing trend of international migration in recent decades has drawn attention and sparked various debates in national and international communities. According to statistics from international institutions and organizations, a significant number of migrants are migrant workers, a considerable portion of whom lack documentation or are in an irregular situation. Despite the normative inflation in the international human rights system and the existence of specific international instruments adopted by the International Labour Organization and the United Nations, the extent to which irregular migrant workers enjoy human rights protections remains ambiguous and requires further examination. The particular vulnerability of this group led the Committee on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families to specifically address the issue of protecting the rights of irregular migrant workers in its General Comment No. 2. Hence, this General Comment holds special significance in clarifying the existing protective frameworks for irregular migrant workers. In this context, the main question of the present article is: In light of General Comment No. 2 of the Committee on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers, what protections are available to irregular migrant workers? Using a descriptive-analytical method and library tools, including a review of existing documents, this article concludes that the Migrant Workers Convention, as the most important international instrument on the rights of migrant workers, provides only minimal protections for irregular migrant workers. In contrast, these individuals enjoy greater protections under other international human rights instruments.
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