Irregular Migration by Sea: A Critical Analysis of EU and EU Member State Extraterritorial Practice in the Light of International Law (original) (raw)
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European Journal of Migration and Law, 2010
During the past few years the border waters between Europe and Africa have become an EU-policy crucible. In the midst of the tightening of EU border controls and refugee protection claims, supranational, national and local actors fi nd themselves in a phase of legal insecurity and negotiation. Th is article is based on ethnographical research carried out in Libya, Italy and Malta. It sheds light on the diff erent actors' practices at sea and in the surrounding border region. It also explores how new parameters for refugee protection are emerging in the border regions of the European Union. Th e article argues that the policy practices of the co-operation between Italy and Libya as well as the informal operational methods carried out in the Mediterranean Sea function as a trailblazer of the overall EU refugee policy. In the long term, some of these practices will aff ect and change the legal basis and the formal regulations of the European refugee regime. Th e principle of non-refoulement could fi rst be undermined and then abolished in this process. Using an approach that combines the empirical study of border regions with a legal anthropological perspective, the article analyses the Union's processes of change and decision-making on local, national and supranational levels and their interconnections.
Maritime borders in the Central Mediterranean Search and Rescue and access to asylum
Anales de Derecho, 2023
The article argues that the border for migrants in the Central Mediterranean can only be identified by intertwining provisions of international maritime law and international humanitarian norms to find that the border is shifted on board of the boats that perform Search and Rescue (SAR) or Interdiction Operations regardless of their position on the map and of the official borders created by International Treaties. By highlighting the discrepancy between the restrictive political/operational trends and the legal commitment towards search and rescue and maritime borders, this article demonstrates how European human rights jurisprudence on search and rescue and non-refoulement shaped the European response at sea and determined the shifting of maritime borders on board of the boats performing rescues or interceptions. As a consequence, this explains the criminalization of SAR NGOs, which become unwanted border outposts at Sea.
This article analyses the European anti-smuggling agenda as an anti-policy that derives legitimacy from fighting ‘bad things’, in terms that mask political disagreement. By juxtaposing the agenda to the experiences and understandings of those whom such measures affect most directly – people migrating without authorisation to the EU – it uncovers the productivity of anti-smuggling and the political contestations surrounding it. Based on a qualitative analysis of 257 interviews carried out with 271 people who travelled – or sought to travel – across the Mediterranean Sea by boat using smuggling networks, the article highlights the complicity of governing authorities and officials with smuggling networks and practices, as well as the diversity and ambivalences of relationships between smugglers and the smuggled. Going further, the article points to the specific ways in which anti-smuggling is contested by those on the move, which expose a central political disagreement over the legitimacy of mobility across borders.
Yildirim Beyazit University, 2020
Although it has gradually been deprived of its initial dominance, the principle of freedom of the high seas has long been and still is a basic principle of the current maritime law. The freedom of high seas does not only belong to coastal State but also to landlocked States. The principle provides all States including non-recognized free navigation. Moreover, the right to overflight as well as laying cables, pipelines, and enjoyment of the sea resources are not subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of certain State or States. The usage of high seas is considered as in the character of res communis. Even if migration and crimes committed upon seas are long-standing incidents, recent development in navigation and struggles in many regions have escalated smuggling and trafficking activities. Migration has become one of the most common incidents to be faced in these seas. Recent incidents in the Mediterranean Sea demonstrate the weakness of international rules and their enforcement. It is also evident that international provisions are also failing to protect the migrants‟ fundamental rights including the right to life. Rescue operations for persons in imminent danger and interdictions against vessels carrying illegal migrants have unveiled absence of necessary regulations, or inadequate interpretation of some of them. In order to protect migrants‟ life and fundamental rights, it is required that international bodies must act proactively. Push back strategy from the maritime frontier and seaworthy boat practice for migrants upon the seas are the contemporary technics which clashed with the nonrefoulement principle and the fundamental rights of the migrants. Extraterritorial application of right to life and non-refoulement are essential tools and responsibilities in migrant smuggling and interception measures in this regard.
This article looks at securitization/humanitarianization dynamics in the EU external sea borders to track and critique the substantial transformation of the role played by human rights in the Mediter-ranean. Mapping the evolution of maritime engagement up to the 'refugee crisis', it is revealed how the invocation of human rights serves paradoxically to curtail (migrants') human rights, justifying interdiction ('to save lives'), and impeding access to safety in Europe. The result is a double reification of 'boat migrants' as threats to border security and as victims of smuggling/trafficking. Through a narrative of 'rescue', interdiction is laundered into an ethically sustainable strategy of border governance. Instead of being considered a problematic (potentially lethal) means of control, it is redefined into a life-saving device. The ensuing 'rescue-through-interdiction'/'rescue-without -protection' paradigm alters the nature of human rights, which, rather than functioning as a check on interdiction, end up co-opted as another securitization/humanitarianization tool.
Although both international and EU law impose a number of obligations on the EU Member States with regard to persons in distress at sea, their effective implementation is limited by the manner in which they are being interpreted. The fact that the persons concerned are migrants, who may seek asylum upon rescue, has given rise to frequent disputes and to episodes of non-compliance. Frontex missions and the Italian 2009 push-back campaign illustrate the issue. With the objective of clarifying the scope of common obligations and to establish minimum operational arrangements for joint maritime operations, the EU has adopted a set of common guidelines for the surveillance of the external maritime borders. On the basis of the principle of systemic interpretation, this article intends to contribute to the clarification of the main obligations in international and European law binding upon the EU Member States when they operate at sea.
PEACE & SECURITY-PAIX ET SÉCURITÉ INTERNATIONALES (EuroMediterranean Journal of International Law and International Relations), 2013
Migration by sea is a phenomenon which is largely associated with irregular flows and growing concern by destination States about border control and integrity of restrictive migration policies. Only incidentally, the human rights’ costs are extensively debated. The Mediterranean Sea is a crucial scenario which highlights the difficulty encountered by the Search and Rescue regime to cope with the techniques adopted by smugglers and with the additional tensions provoked by some features of EU migration law. The SAR provisions are inherently accompanied by certain elasticity, in order to take into account the variety of concrete situations. In a regional context characterized by political divergences among European states and between the latters and transit countries, some IMO and EU’s attempts to draw a solution are evaluated: it clearly emerges that the failures to find out a reasonable compromise are due to factors external to maritime law. Such factors must be addressed with more courage by the EU member states: the hot issue of the burden sharing; a really comprehensive dialogue with origin countries and transit countries on the complex subject of international migration; the renunciation to ask the cooperation of states with a negative human rights record. Absent a more far reaching policy, dramatic events and hidden deaths will sadly continue, as far as the crocodile tears of European politicians when some incident eventually reaches the attention of media and of public opinion. MIGRATION IRREGULIERE DANS LA MER MEDITERRANEE: ASPECTS PROBLEMATIQUES CONCERNANT LES RÈGLES INTERNATIONALES SUR SAUVEGARDE DE VIE EN MER La migration via mer est un phénomène qui est en grande partie associé aux flux irréguliers et à la préoccupation croissante des États de destination relativement au contrôle de ses frontières et à l’intégrité de ses politiques migratoires restrictives. Très rarement, les aspects relatifs aux droits de l’homme reçoivent l’attention qu’ils mériteraient. La Méditerranée est un scénario crucial qui met en évidence les difficultés rencontrées par le système de la Recherche et du Sauvetage quand il fait face aux techniques adoptées par les trafiquants et aux tensions additionnelles provoqués par certaines règles du droit d’immigration de l’UE. Les dispositions sur les activités SAR sont accompagnées par certaine élasticité, afin de prendre en compte la variété des situations concrètes. Dans un contexte régional caractérisé par des divergences politiques entre les États membres de l’UE et entre ceux-ci et les États de transit, quelques tentatives poussées par l’OMI et l’UE sont évaluées dans la présente étude: de toute évidence, il ressort que les échecs pour trouver un compromis raisonnable sont dus à des facteurs externes au droit maritime. Ces facteurs doivent être recouverts d’une plus grande participation des États membres de l’UE: la question sensible du partage de la charge, un très large dialogue avec les pays d’origine et de transit sur les complexités de la migration internationale; le renoncement, au même temps, la demande de coopération des pays qui ne respectent pas suffisamment les droits de l’homme. Á l’absence d’une politique plus ambitieuse et à long terme, les événements dramatiques et morts silencieuses vont se poursuivre, et aussi les «larmes de crocodile» des politiciens européens qui se posent lorsqu’un incident vient à provoquer l’attention des médias communication et l’opinion publique MIGRACIÓN IRREGULAR EN EL MAR MEDITERRÁNEO: ASPECTOS PROBLEMATICOS RELATIVOS A LAS REGLAS INTERNACIONALES SOBRE LA PROTECCIÓN DE LA VIDA EN MAR La migración vía mar es un fenómeno abundantemente asociado con los flujos irregulares y con la creciente preocupación por parte de los Estados de destino con respecto al control des sus fronteras y a la integridad de sus políticas migratorias restrictivas. Muy raramente, los aspectos relativos a los derechos humanos reciben la atención que merecerían. El Mar Mediterráneo representa un escenario crucial que destaca las dificultades que el régimen de búsqueda y rescate encuentra al enfrentarse con las técnicas empleadas por los traficantes y con las tensiones adicionales consecuencia de ciertas pautas del derecho de inmigración de la UE. Las disposiciones sobre las actividades SAR son inherentemente acompañadas por una cierta elasticidad, a fin de tomar en cuenta la variedad de las situaciones concretas. En un contexto regional caracterizado por divergencias políticas entre los Estados miembros de la UE y entre estos y los Estados de tránsito, algunas tentativas impulsadas por la OMI y la UE son evaluadas en el presente estudio: resulta que el fracaso en llegar a un razonable compromiso se debe a motivos ajenos al derecho marítimo. Tales factores deben ser abarcados con mas implicación por parte de los Estados miembros de la UE: el delicado tema de la repartición de las cargas; una diálogo realmente amplio con los países de origen y con los de tránsito sobre las complejidades de las migraciones internacionales; la renuncia, al mismo tiempo, a pedir la cooperación de países que no respetan con suficiencia los derechos humanos. A falta de una política más ambiciosa y de largo plazo, los eventos dramáticos y las muertes silenciosas están destinados a seguir, así como las “lagrimas de cocodrilo” de los políticos europeos que surgen cuando algún incidente llega a provocar la atención de los medios de comunicación y de la opinión publica.
The EU Approach on Migration in the Mediterranean
European Parliament, 2021
This study, commissioned by the European Parliament’s Policy Department for Citizens’ Rights and Constitutional Affairs at the request of the LIBE Committee , examines the EU approach on migration in the Mediterranean, covering developments from the 2015 refugee crisis up to the Covid-19 pandemic, assessing the effect these events have had on the design, implementation, and reform of EU policy on asylum, migration and external border control, and documenting the ramifications these changes have had on the actors who operate and are impacted by these policies, including immigration authorities, civil society organisations, and the migrants themselves. The study includes a review of the state of play of relevant EU asylum and migration legislation and its implementation, an appraisal of the situation in the Mediterranean, and a thorough examination of the external dimension of the EU migration, asylum and border policies, focusing on cooperation with third countries (Turkey, Libya and Niger), incorporating human rights and refugee law considerations and an analysis of the implications of funding allocations under the EU Trust Fund for Africa and the Refugee Facility in Turkey. The main goal is to test the correct application of EU and international law, having regard to increased allegations of human rights violations, undue criminalisation, and complicity of the EU in atrocity crimes committed against migrants at sea, stranded in Libya, or contained in Niger and Turkey. The role of EU agencies (Frontex and EASO) is also assessed alongside the bilateral or multi-lateral initiatives adopted by MS to confront the mounting challenges at the common external borders of the EU, incorporating the principle of solidarity and fair sharing of responsibility (Article 80 TFEU) as a horizontal concern.
The refugee, the sovereign and the sea: EU interdiction policies in the Mediterranean PDF Logo
2008
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