Protected Main Rights of the ICRMW
The rights of migrant workers as established by the Convention are divided into two general categories:
- The rights of migrant workers and members of their family (Part III): applicable to all migrant workers (concluding the illegal ones)
- Specific rights of migrant workers and members of their family (Part IV): applicable only to migrant workers in a regular situation.
Rights for All Migrant Workers
- Right to leave and return to the State of origin (Article 1)
- Right to life (Article 9)
- Prohibition of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment (Article 10)
- Prohibition of slavery or servitude and of forced or compulsory labour (Article 11)
- Freedom of thought, conscience and religion (Article 12)
- Right to hold and express his opinion (Article 13)
- Respect of honour, of dignity and of privacy (Article 14)
- Prohibition of arbitrary depriving of property (Article 15)
- Necessity to ensure an equitable procedure of recourse to migrant workers and members of their family (Article 16 – 20)
- Prohibition of arbitrary expulsion (Article 22)
- Equal treatment to nationals of the State of employment (Article 25 – 28)
Rights for Migrant Workers in a Regular Situation (with Residence Permits)
- Right to liberty of movement and freedom to choose their residence (Article 39)
- Equality of access to and participation in cultural life (Article 43)
- Protection against dismissal, unemployment benefits, access to public work schemes intended to combat unemployment, access to alternative employment in the event of loss of work or termination of other remunerated activity (Article 54)