A Contested Asylum System: The European Union between Refugee Protection and Border Control in the Mediterranean Sea

2010 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-21 ◽  
Author(s):  
Silja Klepp
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Mediterranean Sea ◽  
Border Control ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Refugee Protection ◽  
The Mediterranean

A Contested Asylum System: The European Union between Refugee Protection and Border Control in the Mediterranean Sea

2010 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-21 ◽  
Author(s):  
Silja Klepp
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Mediterranean Sea ◽  
Border Region ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Anthropological Perspective ◽  
Border Regions ◽  
Refugee Protection ◽  
Local Actors ◽  
The Mediterranean ◽  
Border Controls

Abstract 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 find themselves in a phase of legal insecurity and negotiation. This article is based on ethnographical research carried out in Libya, Italy and Malta. It sheds light on the different 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. The 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 affect and change the legal basis and the formal regulations of the European refugee regime. The principle of non-refoulement could first 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.

Operation Sophia in Uncharted Waters: European and International Law Challenges for the eu Naval Mission in the Mediterranean Sea

2016 ◽  
Vol 85 (3) ◽  
pp. 235-259 ◽  
Author(s):  
Graham Butler ◽  
Martin Ratcovich
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
International Law ◽  
Mediterranean Sea ◽  
International Human Rights Law ◽  
The European Union ◽  
European Union Law ◽  
Refugee Law ◽  
Legal Challenges ◽  
The Mediterranean ◽  
International Refugee Law

This article addresses the main legal challenges facing the European Union (eu) Naval Force, eunavfor Med (‘Operation Sophia’), established in 2015, to disrupt human smuggling and trafficking activities in the Mediterranean Sea. It examines a number of legal issues that have given rise to scepticism on the viability of this type of operation, ranging from challenges under European Union law regarding mandate and oversight, to complex questions of compliance with international law. Forcible measures may be at variance with the international law of the sea, binding on the eu and its Member States alike. Even if such strictures can be avoided by a broad United Nations mandate and/or the consent of the neighbouring government(s), international refugee law and international human rights law provide limitations on the measures that Operation Sophia will be tasked with. Different avenues will be explored to ensure the Operation’s compliance with these different legal regimes.

scholarly journals The Role of NGOs in Search and Rescue Operations in the Context of the European Union Migration Crisis

2020 ◽  
pp. 77-91
Author(s):  
U. Stoliarova
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Mediterranean Sea ◽  
Search And Rescue ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Eu Member States ◽  
Governmental Organizations ◽  
Non Governmental Organizations ◽  
The Mediterranean ◽  
Migration Crisis ◽  
Immigration Issue

In the early 2010s due to the aggravation of the situation in the Middle East and North Africa, the European Union faced an unprecedented escalation of the migration problem, which put serious pressure on many EU mechanisms. The article analyzes Brussels’ response to the increase in the number of victims in the Mediterranean Sea during the migration crisis, which peaked in 2015. The adoption of new initiatives that were aimed at easing the immigration issue did not lead to the expected results. The EU struggled to cope with a rise in the number of migrants who sought to reach European shores. The real challenge for the arriving migrants was crossing the Mediterranean Sea. Amid the increase in unmanaged flows of refugees and regular shipwrecks that led to the death of many migrants, non-governmental organizations stepped out. The organization and conduct of search and rescue operations (SARs) by NGOs led to the emergence of a new type of SARs, non-state ones, since even large NGOs began to conduct such operations for the first time. The article examines the contribution of European non-governmental organizations to the provision of search and rescue operations, as well as analyzes the main problems and challenges that these NGOs faced while implementing such activities from 2014 to 2020. It is concluded that European non-governmental organizations have saved tens of thousands of lives of migrants and refugees, thus becoming an important element in the EU’s migration crisis settlement. At the same time, they faced a number of problems and challenges, including criticism from some EU member states, which considered the activities of NGOs as a pull-factor for new migrants.

The European Union in the Mediterranean Sea: Navigating the Political-Legal Shallows

2018 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 271-298
Author(s):  
Stephan F.H. Ollick
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Mediterranean Sea ◽  
North Africa ◽  
Political Agenda ◽  
The Political ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Regime Complex ◽  
International Migrants ◽  
The Mediterranean ◽  
The Eu

The Mediterranean Sea has long been an important and perilous route for international migrants from the coast of North Africa to the European Union (EU). Manygrants and refugees travelling on overcrowded and unseaworthy dinghies do not survive the crossing. Rising numbers of fatalities put pressure on the EU to address the Mediterranean tragedy with renewed urgency. Frontex Operation Triton (2014–) and the naval mission eunavfor med Operation SOPHIA (2015–) were launched to survey and influence migratory flows. Although thousands of migrants and refugees have thus been delivered from distress at sea, casualty rates remain staggeringly high. Some commentators and organizations have dismissed Frontex and eunavfor med Operation SOPHIA as vehicles of an isolationist political agenda. This overlooks the narrow legal, political and practical confines within which these initiatives operate. Frontex and eunavfor med Operation SOPHIA seek to attain a level of control necessary for the delayed implementation of more ambitious and forward-looking schemes. The unsophisticated, temporary nature of the regime complex currently governing the EU’s activities in the Mediterranean Sea manifests in ambiguous language, in frequent and disparate amendments, and in the brevity of the mandates thus dispensed.

scholarly journals TURKEY–EU RELATIONS AFTER THE CHANGE OF THE LEADERSHIP OF THE EUROPEAN UNION 1 DECEMBER 2019

2020 ◽  
pp. 24-46
Author(s):  
Amur Gadjiev ◽  
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Mediterranean Sea ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Eu Countries ◽  
Main Factors ◽  
The Mediterranean ◽  
Migration Crisis ◽  
The Eu

This article attempts to identify and analyze the main factors that influenced the development of relations between Turkey and the European Union after the change in EU leadership, as well as highlight the main reasons that aggravated these relations until the outbreak of COVID-19. The threat of a sharp aggravation of the migration crisis in the EU countries against the background of the deteriorating situation in Syrian Idlib and the tightening of sanctions against Turkey in connection with its exploration work in the Mediterranean Sea created even greater foggy relations between Turkey and the EU.

scholarly journals POLITICAL AND SOCIAL VULNERABILITIES IN THE CONTEXT OF THE REFUGEE CRISIS 2011-2016: THE ARAB SPRING AND THE ROLE OF THE MEDITERRANEAN SEA

2020 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Toader FLUTUR
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Middle East ◽  
Mediterranean Sea ◽  
North Africa ◽  
Social Situation ◽  
Migration Route ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Active Involvement ◽  
The Mediterranean ◽  
The Right

The issue of uncontrolled migration has produced an institutional transformation of the European Union, dictated by the need to find solutions to new challenges. The reform of migration and asylum policy had to enter the European public agenda at an accelerated pace and political leaders had to find the common will to create the right legislative framework to respond to the migration crisis. The most important migration route preferred by refugees and economic migrants, is the Mediterranean Sea which in recent years has experienced the most intense human trafficking but also the most deaths in such a short time. As a result of the popular riots in North Africa and the Middle East in 2011, the deteriorating political and social situation in the countries of origin, more and more citizens have left their native places in the hope of ensuring a better life in the European Union. In order to support the structural reforms needed by the two areas and even physical reconstruction if we refer to the Syrian case, the European Union must show active involvement and a coherent plan to curb the fluid sources of migration. Supporting the reconstruction of foundations or strengthening institutions, investment in aid programs to stimulate economies and strong agreements with the governments of the states of the Middle East and North Africa are just some of the measures that the European Union should take swiftly.

scholarly journals What asylum and refugee policies do Europeans want? Evidence from a cross-national conjoint experiment

2021 ◽  
pp. 146511652110068
Author(s):  
Anne-Marie Jeannet ◽  
Tobias Heidland ◽  
Martin Ruhs
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Public Preferences ◽  
Refugee Protection ◽  
Political Debates ◽  
Conjoint Experiment ◽  
Refugee Policies ◽  
European Union Member States ◽  
Asylum Seekers And Refugees ◽  
Cross National

The protection of asylum seekers and refugees has become one of the most politically divisive issues in the European Union, yet there has been a lack of research on public preferences for asylum and refugee policies. This article analyzes which policies Europeans prefer and why. We advance a theoretical framework that explains how asylum and refugee policies that use limits and conditions enable individuals to resolve conflicting humanitarian and perceived national interest logics. Using an original conjoint experiment in eight countries, we demonstrate that Europeans prefer policies that provide refugee protection but also impose control through limits or conditions. In contrast to the divisive political debates between European Union member states, we find consistent public preferences across European countries.

The (in)securitization practices of the three universes of EU border control: Military/Navy – border guards/police – database analysts

2014 ◽  
Vol 45 (3) ◽  
pp. 209-225 ◽  
Author(s):  
Didier Bigo
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Use Of Force ◽  
Border Control ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Professional Dispositions ◽  
Work Routines ◽  
Local Contexts ◽  
Control Technologies ◽  
Practical Sense ◽  
The Eu

What practices of (in)securitization involve the notions of border and border control in the European Union? How do these practices operate? How are they assembled? In the resulting assemblage, is the notion of borders – understood as state borders – still relevant for the control of individuals and populations moving across the frontiers of the EU? Drawing on empirical observations and with a specific focus on how border control is translated into different social universes, this article seeks to show that practices of control are routinely embedded in a practical sense that informs what controlling borders does and means. This practical sense is itself informed by different professional habitus and work routines involving deterrence and the use of force, interrogation and detention, surveillance of populations on the move and the profiling of (un)trusted travellers. Its strength varies in relation to its shared dimension by most of the operators, and is adjusted to the materiality of borders as well as to the local contexts in which it is deployed. It activates, or does not activate, the maximal use of various control technologies (satellites, pre-registration and interoperable exchange of data between the state and private bureaucracies, biometrics identifiers, body-scanners). For understanding practices of (in)securitization, actual work routines and the specific professional ‘dispositions’ are therefore more important than any discourses actors may use to justify their activities.

scholarly journals HOLOTIPUS IN MARINE BIODIVERSITY AND CONSERVATION

Holotipus ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-2
Author(s):  
Daniela Pessani
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Marine Environment ◽  
Mediterranean Basin ◽  
Action Plan ◽  
Marine Biodiversity ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Physical Chemical ◽  
Fragile Environment ◽  
The Mediterranean ◽  
The Mediterranean Basin

The oceans are a vast yet fragile environment, and one of the biggest issues scientists have to tackle today is the conservation of marine biodiversity. In 1975, to try to address the physical, chemical and biological alteration of these delicate ecosystems, 16 Mediterranean States together with the European Union, implemented the Mediterranean Action Plan (MAP). The aim was to safeguard the marine environment and promote its development in the Mediterranean basin.

scholarly journals The migrant crisis in the Mediterranean: A multidimensional challenge for the European Union

2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. 617-629
Author(s):  
C Anguita Olmedo ◽  
P González Gómez del Miño
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Methodological Approach ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Political Debate ◽  
Member States ◽  
Institutional Stability ◽  
Social Agenda ◽  
Illegal Migrants ◽  
The Mediterranean ◽  
The Eu

The European Union (EU) throughout its history has been the destination of diverse migratory flows. Therefore, migration has acquired special relevance by occupying a prominent position on the EU’s political, economic, cultural, and social agenda. The most recent migration crisis of 2015 represents a multidimensional challenge with severe consequences that affect, first, the institutional foundations of the EU (governance, security, solidarity of member states and institutional stability) and, second, the migratory policies of receiving states and the EU itself. This crisis is characterized, first, by the high number of illegal migrants that cross the Mediterranean, and, second, by the humanitarian tragedy and insecurity, which make the sea a grey area and an international reference in the migratory processes. The migration-security equation became a field of applied research and analysis, and at the same time a focus of political debate and public opinion. The article aims at analysing the crisis of 2015 and its consequences, which is done by means of the methodological approach based on the consequences that this phenomenon entails for the EU and for certain member states. The response of the EU is limited primarily to securitization by strengthening the external borders, turning towards internal security rather than respecting international and Community Treaties and promotion of their values, which contradicts the anticipated leadership of this global actor. The authors believe that it is necessary to implement new mechanisms in addition to ensuring greater effectiveness of the existing ones.

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