Committee on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families

Summary

The term “migrant workers in an irregular situation” is defined in article 5 of the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families (the Convention), which specifies that migrant workers or members of their families are considered as non-documented or in an irregular situation if they are not authorized to enter, to stay or to engage in a remunerated activity in the State of employment pursuant to the law of that State and to international agreements to which it is a party.

The Committee is of the view that the term “in an irregular situation” or “nondocumented” is the proper terminology when referring to their status. The use of the term “illegal” to describe migrant workers in an irregular situation is inappropriate and should be avoided as it tends to stigmatize them by associating them with criminality.

The situation of migrant workers may be irregular either because they have entered the State of employment in an unauthorized way and are thus not authorized to stay, reside or work in that State, or because they overstay the period or otherwise violate the conditions of their authorized stay.

The Committee emphasizes that whatever the modalities of their stay, migrant workers can never be deprived of their fundamental rights, as protected under Part III of the Convention, by virtue of their irregular situation.