The Treatment Of Immigrants In The European Court Of Human Rights

"This book looks at how the European Court of Human Rights has addressed the question of immigration. As immigration in Europe has increased, so has its criminalisation. This is a multi-faceted phenomenon, with criminal justice and harsh use of immigration measures becoming more and more entwined. This book asks: how has the European Court of Human Rights responded? Drawing on case law from across the spectrum of rights, it will show how effective it has been in countering detention and deportation, if at all. This makes an original contribution to growing focus on 'crimmigration'."--

This edited collection investigates where the European Convention on Human Rights as a living instrument stands on migration and the rights of migrants. This book offers a comprehensive analysis of cases brought by migrants in different stages of migration, covering the right to flee, who is entitled to enter and remain in Europe, and what treatment is owed to them when they come within the jurisdiction of a Council of Europe member state. As such, the book evaluates the case law of the European Convention on Human Rights concerning different categories of migrants including asylum seekers, irregular migrants, those who have migrated through domestic lawful routes, and those who are currently second or third generation migrants in Europe. The broad perspective adopted by the book allows for a systematic analysis of how and to what extent the Convention protects non-refoulement, migrant children, family rights of migrants, status rights of migrants, economic and social rights of migrants, as well as cultural and religious rights of migrants.

This volume conducts an in-depth analysis of the ECtHR’s case law in the area of migration and asylum as regards the most relevant rights of the ECHR, exploring the role of this court in this area of law.

Are Human Rights for Migrants? Critical Reflections on the Status of Irregular Migrants in Europe and the United States examines upon the possibilities and limitations which arise from approaching the situation of migrants in human rights terms.

The treatment of migrants is one of the most challenging issues that human rights, as a political philosophy, faces today. It has increasingly become a contentious issue for many governments and international organizations around the world. The controversies surrounding immigration can lead to practices at odds with the ethical message embodied in the concept of human rights, and the notion of 'migrants' as a group which should be treated in a distinct manner. This book examines the way in which two institutions tasked with ensuring the protection of human rights, the European Court of Human Rights and Inter-American Court of Human Rights, treat claims lodged by migrants. It combines legal, sociological, and historical analysis to show that the two courts were the product of different backgrounds, which led to differing attitudes towards migrants in their founding texts, and that these differences were reinforced in their developing case law. The book assesses the case law of both courts in detail to argue that they approach migrant cases from fundamentally different perspectives. It asserts that the European Court of Human Rights treats migrants first as aliens, and then, but only as a second step in its reasoning, as human beings. By contrast, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights approaches migrants first as human beings, and secondly as foreigners (if they are). Dembour argues therefore that the Inter-American Court of Human Rights takes a fundamentally more human rights-driven approach to this issue. The book shows how these trends formed at the courts, and assesses whether their approaches have changed over time. It also assesses in detail the issue of the detention of irregular migrants. Ultimately it analyses whether the divergence in the case law of the two courts is likely to continue, or whether they could potentially adopt a more unified practice.

This book examines major issues in the protection of the human rights of migrants. Providing a multi-jurisdictional and multi-disciplinary analysis, the work allows scholars, human rights practitioners and activists to access current discussions in the field.

A critical discussion of EU and ECHR migration and refugee law, this book analyses the law on asylum and immigration of third country-nationals. It focuses on how the EU norms interact with ECHR human rights case law on migration, and the pitfalls of European human rights pluralism.

The book undertakes a thorough human rights assessment of the EU Returns Directive. The overarching human rights framework, which circumscribes states prerogatives in the context of expulsion, builds upon obligations derived from the principle of non-refoulement; the right to life, respect for family and private life, effective remedy, basic social rights; the prohibition of torture and ill-treatment; and protection against arbitrary detention and collective expulsion. Based on this assessment, Majcher explores several protection gaps in the EU return policy which may result in violations of migrants’ rights and highlights how the provisions of the Directive should be implemented in line with member states’ human rights obligations. Informed by this assessment, the book discusses amendments to the Directive, proposed by the European Commission in September 2018. “By examining the European Union (EU) Returns Directive in the light of international and European human rights law, Izabella Majcher thoroughly explores and analyses the requirements the EU member states’ authorities must guarantee migrants in an irregular situation when they adopt and implement return decisions, entry bans, pre-removal detention, and removal.” Marie-Laure Basilien-Gainche, Professor of public international law, University Jean Moulin Lyon 3, Honorary member of the Institut universitaire de France