With funding from Zennström Philanthropies, the AIRE Centre
launched its invisible migrants project in 2010. What makes
migrants invisible? Some have rights in theory under European
human rights law - for example, not to be expelled from the
country in which they are living because of the real risk of ill
treatment they face back home, or because of the interference
expulsion would represent with their right to respect for family
or private life - but they cannot enjoy those rights in practice
because of the way the authorities are handling their cases.
Some are made invisible by decisions that disregard their
rights, for example, as family members of EU migrants. Others
have an unquestioned right to live in the country where they are
residing, but are refused social assistance benefits or
healthcare as a result of decisions that ignore or flout
European law, driving these migrants to the margins or society.
This project represents a systematic response to the problems
invisible migrants face in asserting the