CMW/C/GC/2 migrant workers and members of their families. While article 22 regulates only the procedure and not the substantive grounds of expulsion, its purpose is to prevent arbitrary expulsions and to provide substantive protection against expulsions in certain situations. Article 22 applies to all procedures aimed at the obligatory departure of migrant workers whether described in national law as expulsion or otherwise. Substantive protection against expulsion: non-refoulement 50. The principle of non-refoulement, as contained in international and regional human rights and refugee law, is the prohibition on forcibly removing anyone, in any manner whatsoever, to a country or territory where they would be at real risk of persecution or serious human rights violations or abuses. In the view of the Committee, this principle covers the risk of torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, including inhumane and degrading conditions of detention for migrants or lack of necessary medical treatment in the country of return, as well as the risk to the right to life (arts. 9 and 10 of the Convention). It also applies to situations where individuals would not be protected from onward refoulement. The Committee is of the view that migrants and members of their families should be protected in cases where expulsions would constitute arbitrary interference with the right to family and private life. Migrants and members of their families in an irregular situation with international protection needs should also be protected against expulsion. Prohibition of collective expulsion 51. Article 22, paragraph 1, of the Convention explicitly prohibits collective expulsion and requires that each case of expulsion be examined and decided individually. States parties have an obligation to ensure that their expulsion procedures provide sufficient guarantees to ensure that the personal circumstances of each migrant worker are genuinely and individually taken into account. This obligation extends to all spaces over which a State party exercises effective control, which may include vessels on the high seas. 16 Procedural safeguards in individual expulsion proceedings 52. Article 22, paragraph 2, seeks to prevent arbitrary expulsions by allowing only those carried out “in pursuance of a decision taken by the competent authority in accordance with law.” Article 22, paragraph 3, provides for the decision on expulsion to be communicated to the migrant worker concerned in a language he or she understands and, upon his or her request where not otherwise mandatory, in writing and with reasons, save in exceptional circumstances on grounds of national security. These rights are important to ensure due process, by enabling migrant workers to prepare their arguments with regard to such a decision. The right of the persons concerned to be informed of these rights before, or, at the latest, at the time the decision is rendered, serves the same purpose. 53. The right of a person to submit the reason he or she should not be expelled and to have his or her case reviewed by the competent authority (art. 22, para. 4), includes the right to seek a stay of the decision of expulsion pending review of the said decision. While a stay of decision does not regularize the status of the person concerned for the time of the proceedings, it prevents the State party from expelling him or her before a final decision is rendered. In accordance with article 83 of the Convention, States parties are obliged to provide an effective remedy, including the right to review by a competent authority for 16 14 See European Court of Human Rights, Hirsi Jamaa and Others v. Italy, Application No. 27765/09 (23 February 2012).