Irregular Migration by Sea: A Critical Analysis of EU and EU Member State Extraterritorial Practice in the Light of International Law (original) (raw)

Since 2011, the arrival of more than one million migrants via irregular means on overcrowded, unseaworthy vessels fleeing persecution, civil war, poverty and devastation, has generated contradictory policies and legal measures from the EU and its Member States. On the one hand, the irregular migration crisis in the Mediterranean has been linked with notions of humanitarianism, focusing on search and rescue and the provision of aid including water, food, medical care, and shelter; while on the other, it has prompted increased security through extraterritorial border controls in order to try and tackle human smuggling and discourage irregular migration. This thesis examines the implications of these extraterritorial border control measures for the rights of irregular migrants and questions the measures' compliance with international human rights law and other international obligations. In particular, it investigates the Italian and Greek extraterritorial practices of interception ...