In recent years, especially after the ‘refugee crisis’ in 2015, a trend can be figured out whereby migrants and refugees that try to reach the EU are no longer met with a humanitarian approach and...Show moreIn recent years, especially after the ‘refugee crisis’ in 2015, a trend can be figured out whereby migrants and refugees that try to reach the EU are no longer met with a humanitarian approach and policies that secure their rights but are increasingly perceived as a security problem and accordingly treated by the European agencies. This also finds expression in the externalization of European borders to North Africa in the form of third country agreements. However, since these migration management policies that are guided by a security concept are at the same time justified by the protection of human rights, this reveals a clear paradox the thesis will bring to light. Among the cooperation of the Frontex mission ‘Sophia’ with the Libyan coastguard, it is shown that a humanitarian legitimization is used for its implementation. This differs from th actual practices that are characterized by violations of migrants’ rights. Frontex uses surveillance technologies and encounters migrants as a ‘security threat’, whereby a securitization of migrants takes place through the actual practices in the Mediterranean. Thereby, private military and security companies (PMSCs) play a crucial role in lobbying Frontex, shaping policies towards a security nexus. In this study, it is argued that the securitization of human rights can explain this paradox. With the externalization policies and outsourcing of migration management tasks, human rights are used strategically to implement a security agenda that aims to keep migrants out of the EU.Show less
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
While Europe is facing a refugee crisis with millions of refugees and migrants crossing the Mediterranean Sea, the industry behind the migrant smuggling has become an extremely lucrative business....Show moreWhile Europe is facing a refugee crisis with millions of refugees and migrants crossing the Mediterranean Sea, the industry behind the migrant smuggling has become an extremely lucrative business. Clearly, steps have to be taken to bring this industry to a halt. But although the EU stepped up its efforts to respond to the migration crisis, when it comes to the criminal investigations and the effective prosecution of migrant smugglers, the EU lags behind one EU member state in particular: Italy. Over the last years, Italian prosecution offices have launched impressive large scale investigations and brought to trial hundreds of suspects. It is also the only EU member state that prosecutes migrant smugglers active along the migration routes from North-Africa towards Italy. In order for the EU to better combat migrant smugglers in the future, it would be useful to look closer at the Italian judicial investigations. Therefore, in this thesis the Italian investigations on migrant smuggling are looked upon as a case study to find out (1) how the EU can improve the investigations on migrant smuggling of other EU member states, based on Italy’s good practises, and (2) how the EU can further support the Italian investigations on migrant smuggling. Particular attention is dedicated to the cooperation between the Italian prosecution offices and the two EU naval missions that are active in the Mediterranean Sea, Frontex-led Operation Triton and the military mission EUNAVFOR Med. One possibility is further explored that can improve this cooperation: the application of so-called shiprider agreements, agreements that were arranged in the past to better combat the smuggling of drugs and other illegal goods, but that can also be applied in the context of Operation Triton and Operation Sophia.Show less
