ABSTRACT
The Return Directive contains provisions on certain social rights of non-removable irregular migrants. The Directive refrains from addressing the general problem of access to those rights by all irregular migrants. However, while the European Social Charter does not expressly refer to irregular migrants, arguments connected to respecting human dignity may well lead to applying the Charter to them. The problem in question must be addressed in light of the Charter of Fundamental Rights as well as the international conventions on human rights to which the EU Member States are parties. Accounts should be taken of the indications of the ECHR and the CESCR.
