Refugees and Migrants

Human Rights Watch’s Refugee and Migrant Rights Division defends the rights of refugees, asylum seekers, displaced people, and migrants worldwide. We investigate rights violations arising from government attempts to divert, expel, or contain these people and defend the right to seek asylum. We investigate abuses against migrant workers, including trafficking. We defend migrants’ rights to have the personal and family lives they have built in their host country considered in expulsion decisions and their rights to non-discrimination respected wherever they may live. We seek to ensure governments use immigration detention as an exceptional measure of last resort and advocate for alternatives to detention. As growing numbers of people escape poverty, lawlessness, and environmental disaster but lack the protections of refugee status, we advocate for wider grounds for protection, as well as expanded pathways to safe and regular migration. Regardless of the reason for their movement, we insist that all people on the move be treated with dignity and respect for their basic human rights.