THE LEGAL FRAMEWORK FOR THE PROTECTION OF MIGRANTS IN INTERNATIONAL LAW

Worldwide, people cross borders for a wide range of reasons: to escape violence and natural disasters, to work, to visit families, to seek education or Medicare, or to return home. It is said that states have complete authority to regulate the movement of persons across their borders – that anything less than complete authority would undermine their sovereignty and threaten their ability to define themselves as a nation. Against this claim, it is usually asserted that migrants have fundamental human rights that state regulations of migration cannot deny. By the provision of Article 2(7) of the United Nations Charter, all states are encouraged to manage their borders, control the flow of persons in and out of the state through their migration laws and policies. The aim of this work is to examine the sovereign rights of states to admit or exclude in light of the rights of migrants in international law. The doctrinal method of research has been adopted in this research. The paper further examined the rights of migrants, causes of migration and the challenges thereof. The paper recommends, among others, that by collaborating with other countries, states are able to strengthen their ability to control their borders effectively.