Mercenaries don't get a lot of the same rights as soldiers or civilians. They fall into this gray area- civilians who decided to become active in the conflict. They aren't protected by the UCMJ and I think even a lot of Geneva Convention shit doesn't apply to them. They are treated with disdain by both the side they fight for, and the people they fight against. In the US military, in my time, all of the "contractors" we saw were viewed as "too stupid/criminal/lacking in discipline in order to actually serve in the military". That was the common perception, at least- a lot of them were former military, kicked out or served their 4 years and decided they wanted to continue to apply that soldiering skillset. But here's the main thing- those guys are fighting for **MONEY.** At least we were convinced that we were fighting for our country, our families, and each other. These guys were viewed as just greedy scumfucks who would kill for money. I am not saying this is correct, this is simply the perception that the majority of active duty military I was deployed with had.