International and European human rights law impose an obligation on EU Member States to guarantee human rights to all individuals within their jurisdiction. This includes irregular migrants.
Children are full-fledged holders of rights. They are beneficiaries of all human and fundamental rights and subjects of special regulations, given their specific characteristics. This handbook aims to illustrate how European law and case law accommodate the specific interests and needs of children. It also considers the importance of parents and guardians or other legal representatives and makes reference, where appropriate, to situations in which rights and responsibilities are most prominently vested in children’s carers. It is a point of reference on both European Union (EU) and Council of Europe (CoE) law related to these subjects, explaining how each issue is regulated under EU law, including the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, as well as under the European Convention on Human Rights, the European Social Charter and other CoE instruments.
This Opinion by the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) aims to inform
the European Parliament’s position on the legislative proposal on the European Border and
Coast Guard (EBCG) presented by the European Commission on 12 September 2018.
Although the Member States are not under an obligation to offer the same benefits to irregular migrants as to nationals, they must follow a core set of human rights standards. These include access to:
necessary healthcare for all, including emergency as well as essential healthcare, such as the possibility to see a doctor or to receive necessary medicines;
healthcare for pregnant women, and healthcare and education for children on the same basis as nationals;
justice – a mechanism allowing an individual to make a complaint and get a remedy such as compensation, for example, for a work accident.