The Development of a Common EU Migration Policy and the Rights of Irregular Migrants: A Progress Narrative?

The inadequacy of European Union (EU) efforts to address the particular vulnerability to rights abuses faced by irregular migrants has become an article of faith for academics, activists and practitioners involved in the field of EU migration policy. This inadequacy is thrown into sharp relief by the efforts expended by the EU to prevent and reduce irregular migration, and control migration more generally. However, despite the emphasis placed on migration control in the common EU migration policy which has being developed since 1999, that same policy and the EU legal order more broadly contain the raw materials out of which a robust human rights protection framework for irregular migrants may be wrought. The entry into force of the Treaty of Lisbon in 2009 increases the chances of the practical realization of such a framework, the makings of which are already discernible in the recent jurisprudence of the Court of Justice of the European Union.