UNIVERSITY OF PADUA European Master’s Degree in Human Rights and Democratisation A.Y. 2016/20117 MONITORING MIGRATION IN THE CENTRAL MEDITERRANEAN A matter of Border Controlling or Rescuing Lives? Author: Mariana Tostes Botelho Paiva Supervisor: Paolo di Stefani ABSTRACT Over the past decades, the number of migrants trying to reach Europe have increased dramatically. With the establishment of European Union and a policy of strengthening border surveillance, paths taken by migrants have changed. The dangerous journey through the Mediterranean Sea became an opportunity for many people to arrive in Italy and culminates in the deadliest migration route in the world. Considering the protection of irregular migrants and the challenge of monitoring Italian frontiers, the author hopes to contribute to the debate on whereas this migration dilemma has being dealt as a humanitarian crisis or as purely matter of border control. Through a comparative study, it will be analyzed the current policies, the actors involved and the legal framework applied both to a Border-Control and to operations of Search and Rescue on the National, EU and International levels. By the end, the necessity of more interaction between these elements will be evaluated and further discussions on their alignment with human rights ideas will be carried. Recommendations will be also proposed in order to introduce more thoughts on this yet, unsolved issue. Key words: irregular migration; Central Mediterranean route; border control; rescue operations in the sea; human rights principles; balanced approach. 2 TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT……………………………………….………………………………………………... 2 TABLE OF CONTENTS……………………………………………………………………………3 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS………………………………………………………………………5 GENERAL INTRODUCTION….………………………………………………………………….6 CHAPTER 1 – IDENTIFYING THE ISSUE: THE LARGE NUMBER OF MIGRANTS CROSSING THE MEDITERRANEAN SEA IN ROUTE TO ITALY……………………….…8 1.1 A quantitative and geographic overview…………………………………………………………9 1.2 How migrating to Europe through the Mediterranean is an option?............................................11 1.3 Relevant Past Operations and Policies adopted through the last decade to monitor the Mediterranean Sea…………………………………………………..................................................14 1.4 Monitoring Migration in Central Mediterranean: A matter of Border Control of Rescuing Lives?...........................................................................................................................................16 CHAPTER 2 – SECURITY APPROACH: MARITIME BORDER CONTROL AND SURVEILLANCE IN THE ITALIAN COAST AND VICINITIES...........................................17 2.1 The Legal Framework..................................................................................................................19 2.1.1 National...............................................................................................................................19 2.1.2 European Union...................................................................................................................21 2.1.3 International.........................................................................................................................23 2.2 The Main Actors and their Competences.....................................................................................27 2.2.1 National...............................................................................................................................27 2.2.2 European Union...................................................................................................................28 2.2.3 International.........................................................................................................................30 2.3 Current Policies and Strategies.....................................................................................................31 2.3.1 Memorandum of Understanding Italy-Libya......................................................................34 2.4 The difficulty of a pure Border Control approach on tackling migrant’s flow in the Central Mediterranean.....................................................................................................................................36 CHAPTER 3 – HUMANITARIAN APPROACH: SEARCH AND RESCUE IN THE CENTRAL MEDITERRANEAN…………………………………………………………………38 3.1 The Legal Framework...................................................................................................................39 3.1.1 National................................................................................................................................39 3.1.2 European Union...................................................................................................................40 3.1.3 International.........................................................................................................................41 3.2 The Main Actors and their Competences………………………………………………………...44 3 3.2.1 National……………...........................................................................................................44 3.2.1.2 Other Actors – Commercial Vessels and Civil Population...........................................46 3.2.2 European Union...................................................................................................................47 3.2.3 International.........................................................................................................................48 3.3 Current Policies and Strategies.....................................................................................................49 3.3.1 European Agenda on Migration..........................................................................................50 3.4 The difficulty of a pure Search and Rescue approach on tackling migrant’s flow in the Central Mediterranean.....................................................................................................................................51 CHAPTER 4 – FILLING THE GAPS BETWEEN A SECURITY AND A HUMANITARIAN APPROACH: A POSSIBLE SOLUTION?....................................................................................53 4.1 The Legal problems regarding human rights obligations towards irregular migrants………….53 4.1.1 Recommendations...............................................................................................................57 4.2 The difficult coordination between actors....................................................................................57 4.2.1 Recommendations...............................................................................................................58 4.3 The need of developing a more permanent and balanced policy.................................................59 4.3.1 Recommendations...............................................................................................................60 GENERAL CONCLUSION…………………………………………………………………..62 BIBLIOGRAPHY……………………………………………………………………………..64 4 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS CoE Council of Europe EC European Commission ECJ European Court of Justice EEC European Economic Community ECHR European Convention on Human Rights ECtHR European Court to Human Rights EU European Union EUNAVFOR European Union Naval Force Frontex European Border and Coast Guard Agency HRW Human Rights Watch IOM International Organization for Migration IMO International Maritime Organization MOAS Migrant Offshore Aid Station Foundation MOU Memorandum of Understanding MSF Médecins Sans Frontières NATO North Atlantic Treaty Organization NGO Non-Governmental Organization RABIT Rapid Intervention Border Team RCC Rescue Coordination Center SAR Search and Rescue SARcon Search and Rescue Convention SOLAS International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea TEU Treaty of European Union TFEU Traty on the Functioning of European Union TU Testo Unico sull’Immigrazione (Text on Italian Immigration Law) UNCLOS United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea UN or ONU United Nations UNHCR United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees 5 GENERAL INTRODUCTION Migration is a fluid phenomenon. It doesn’t matter how tall are the walls or how dangerous could be the journey, people always find a way to overcome these barriers. Migration is also, not a new event. People have from thousands of centuries moved from one place to the other looking for food, water or shelter. In the new globalized era, the term economic migrant appeared but, in fact, it is still related to the one’s search for a better life or even for its own survival. The word economic was attached to migrant when the humanitarian side of migration started to fade, not to think why people leave everything they have but to rather think the financial aspects this move signifies. In reality, the meaning of migration started to be subdivided into different categories at the same time as the definition of frontiers became more important. A citizen is, in simple terms, someone that belongs to a country. Immigrant is someone that is residing inside the borders of a country where he is not a citizen. To understand who is an immigrant it is than, necessary to understand what are borders. The definition of borders, however, is a fictitious human invention1 and susceptible to changes. As the time pass, more and more countries tried to improve the quality of this definition in order to render easier and peaceful, the exercise of sovereignty powers. It is true to affirm that in the past decades migration and