As the immigration debate tops policy makers‘ agendas, the classical migration patterns and policies are challenged by how globalisation has transformed boarders. States, especially western democracies, attempt to find new modes of governance. They do so, notably, by involving non-state actors such as NGOs, international organisations, and private companies in their migration management policies. The growing private involvement in the migration field, long considered as a regalian prerogative of the State, poses a number of questions. Notably, migration policies are increasingly defined in international forums, and a number of internationally agreed texts define the State responsibility to protect individuals, particularly those seeking protection. This adds a global dimension to the norms States have to comply to, even when delegating. This paper aims at understanding how delegation in the migration field is apprehended by international instruments of human rights protection.