The EU has responded to an unprecedented flow of migrants across its Southern Borders with militarized border operations in the Southern Mediterranean Sea and Libya. Scholars understand the...Show moreThe EU has responded to an unprecedented flow of migrants across its Southern Borders with militarized border operations in the Southern Mediterranean Sea and Libya. Scholars understand the militirization of EU external border operations as legitimized primarily by humanitarian imperatives to save migrant lives. In this paper, I propose a revision of this ‘humanitarian thesis’ by demonstrating how EU border control operations should be understand as pursuing primarily security and law-enforcement objectives in the Central Mediterranean Region. EU policy makers have strengethened the mandates of Frontex and the EU Naval Force Mediterranean by coupling border operations with disrupting smuggling and trafficking networks, implementing a UN-imposed arms embargo on Libya, and fighting terrorism in Libya. My findings that EU militarized border control operations pursue European security and law-enforcement interests in the Mediterranean Region provides useful insights into the EU’s emerging migration governance regimes.Show less
