Fishers of Men? The Interception of Migrants in the Mediterranean Sea and Their Forced Return to Libya

INEX Paper 2010

28 Pages Posted: 28 Jun 2011

See all articles by Matteo Tondini

Matteo Tondini

IMT Institute for Advanced Studies; Independent

Date Written: October 30, 2010

Abstract

This paper presents an extensive account and assesses the legality of the recent naval constabulary operations – undertaken by Italian and Libyan military vessels – in the central Mediterranean Sea, aimed at intercepting boat people in international waters and returning them to the Northern African coasts. If considered as a border control operation, the interception of migrants and their debarkation in a third country often lacks a valid legal basis. The latter is easier to be found under maritime law, by ‘labelling’ interceptions as rescue missions. Nevertheless, such operations must be conducted according to state obligations under human rights law and refugee law (especially the non-refoulment rule), which only allow Italian vessels to disembark boat people to a ‘safe third country’. The paper concludes that since Libya cannot be considered a ‘safe third country’ in this sense, the interception of migrants on the high seas and their forced return to Tripoli may entail violations of maritime, human rights, migration and refugee law at both an international, European and domestic level.

Keywords: FRONTEX, Interceptions, Irregular Migration, Italy, Libya, Mediterranean Sea, Non-Refoulement, Rescue

Suggested Citation

Tondini, Matteo and Tondini, Matteo, Fishers of Men? The Interception of Migrants in the Mediterranean Sea and Their Forced Return to Libya (October 30, 2010). INEX Paper 2010, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1873544 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1873544

IMT Institute for Advanced Studies ( email )

Italy

HOME PAGE: http://www.imtlucca.it/matteo.tondini

Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?

Paper statistics

Downloads
486
Abstract Views
2,027
Rank
107,689
PlumX Metrics