Irregular migration and criminalization of migrants, protection of children in the migration process and the right to housing and health of migrants 2011, para. 14
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For decades, many States have responded to persistent irregular migration by intensifying border controls. These measures have often been targeted at wide geographic areas on the borders or coast of a main receiving country or region. In recent years, in an effort to further curb irregular migration and simultaneously address issues of national security, some States were seen as employing techniques in order to "externalize" border controls to countries of origin and transit, whereby utilizing bilateral agreements and/or aid in order to transform these targeted countries into a potential buffer zone to reduce migratory pressures on receiving States. The concern was that these policies, while legitimately aimed at reducing irregular migration, and often incorporated into bilateral agreements that can have positive aspects, have contributed to the criminalization of irregular migration insofar as they treat migration violations as a criminal rather than administrative offence without the proper human rights protections afforded to migrants in the process.
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Non-negotiated soft law
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Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants