Many countries have neglected immigrants’ human rights for a long time. This has led to the ill treatment of immigrants as second-class citizens with their fundamental human rights being infringed. Under the universal declaration of human rights, all countries are to help realize civil, political, cultural, economic and social rights. However, this has not been the case for immigrants in foreign countries. Many of them are not properly treated in a humane way.
These cases of mistreatment go unnoticed. People illegally move to different countries for various reasons. They include political, economic, social and other reasons. Due to the infringements of human rights that immigrants face, that The Human Rights Watch has compiled the report on how to protect the immigrants’ rights. This report is two-fold and focuses on protection of human rights of the immigrants and the citizens of the immigrant countries.
For the immigrants, most of them face the cases when their fundamental human rights are denied due to their lack of knowledge of these rights. An education policy for immigrants could improve the situation.
Those people do not know that human rights are universal. They suffer from discrimination, poor working conditions, low wages, and lack of food, shelter and education. The United Nations High Commission for Refugees says that there is a need to respect all the immigrants’ rights irrespective of their nationality, sex, race or the reason for being in a foreign country.
Countries should embark on educational policies for immigrants. They should offer education on human rights to make sure that all the immigrants are aware of their rights. The authorities are to make sure that immigrants are educated on the nature of human rights, the duties and obligations that come with such rights. Thus they will make sure that immigrants are not denied of their fundamental rights. It will also ensure that a report of any abuse of human rights is to be made to the relevant authorities.
States should also enact strict policies that punish citizens found violating the rights of immigrants. Many immigrants suffer abuse in the hands of the natives. Immigrants are at times desperate, and this leads to their rights being neglected. Law should punish people who take advantage of immigrants and deny them their fundamental human rights.
There are existing policies that prohibit abuse of human rights. The state has a duty to protect the rights of everyone. Despite these laws, human rights are still violated. This calls for strict follow-up on these laws by the authorities.
To protect the human rights of immigrants, we recommend the protection to be employed at an international level. Many countries like the United States experience a great influx of immigrants every year. These immigrants come from different nationalities. If we advocate for protecting immigrants’ rights at a national level, many countries will adopt policies that will favor them. The perception that human rights are universal calls for a universal way of dealing with their infringements.
In conclusion, immigrants have their fundamental human rights denied due to lack of knowledge about the issue. However, even if immigrants are aware of their rights, they lack means by which they can articulate when the violation of their rights occurs. This makes immigrants hopeless and puts them in unfavorable situation because in order to survive, they have to undergo injustices.
The human rights of immigrants can only be ensured by adoption of strict citizenship and immigrant policies. Therefore, countries should work towards achieving improvment on the fulfillment and protection of the human rights.