Abstract
This article begins to undertake a human rights analysis of the increasing number of migrants who die annually while trying to cross the borders of Europe in an irregular manner. Over the past 20 years, border policies increasingly focus on (pro-active, extraterritorial, privatized, and securitized) border management instead of on classical (reactive, territorial, and public) border control. On the basis of existing data, it seems plausible to assume that the increasing migrant mortality is an unintended side-effect of this shift from control to management. The article argues that it is possible to collect data, which are more reliable than those presently available, and presents data from a pilot project carried out on Sicily in November 2011. Presuming better data can be collected; two diverging human rights approaches are developed – a conventional approach holding that European states are not accountable under human rights law for these side-effects and a functional approach holding that human rights law does impose obligations on European states in this context. On all four doctrinal issues which are relevant to the problem (jurisdiction, positive obligations, standing, and collective state responsibility), these diverging approaches lead to diverging doctrinal positions. A choice between the two approaches implies not only legal but also moral, ethical, and political choices.
Acknowledgments
I thank Giorgia Mirto for her thorough preparation of, and participation in my field trip to Sicily in November 2011. I thank Daan Bes for his research assistance in Amsterdam. I thank Asif Efrat for his critical comments on an earlier draft, as well as the other participants of the “Borders & Human Rights” workshop that was held at the College of Law and Business in Ramat Gan on January 10–11, 2012. Furthermore, I am grateful to the editor and reviewers of Law & Ethics of Human Rights for their meticulous feedback on an earlier version of this text.
Date of death | Statu Civile | Number | M/f/unknown | Place where found | United? | Fortress Europe? | Commissario 2011? |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
11-9-1998 | Pozallo | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | ||
24-6-1999 | Vittoria | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | ||
7-3-2002 | Porto Empedocle | 1 | F | Sea, Pelagia | 1 | 1 | 1 |
7-3-2002 | Porto Empedocle | 1 | M | Sea, Pelagia | 1 | 1 | 1 |
7-3-2002 | Porto Empedocle | 1 | M | Sea, Pelagia | 1 | 1 | 1 |
7-3-2002 | Porto Empedocle | 1 | M | Sea, Pelagia | 1 | 1 | 1 |
7-3-2002 | Porto Empedocle | 1 | F | Sea, Pelagia | 1 | 1 | 1 |
7-3-2002 | Porto Empedocle | 1 | F | Sea, Pelagia | 1 | 1 | 1 |
7-3-2002 | Porto Empedocle | 1 | F | Sea, Pelagia | 1 | 1 | 1 |
7-3-2002 | Porto Empedocle | 1 | M | Sea, Pelagia | 1 | 1 | 1 |
7-3-2002 | Porto Empedocle | 1 | M | Sea, Pelagia | 1 | 1 | 1 |
7-3-2002 | Porto Empedocle | 1 | F | Sea, Pelagia | 1 | 1 | 1 |
7-3-2002 | Porto Empedocle | 1 | M | Sea, Pelagia | 1 | 1 | 1 |
7-3-2002 | Porto Empedocle | 1 | M | Sea, Pelagia | 1 | 1 | 1 |
26-5-2002 | Porto Empedocle | 1 | M, Ibrahim Yahya ABAKER, Sudan, 1975 | Sea, Lampedusa | 0 | 0 | 0 |
15-9-2002 | Porto Empedocle | 1 | M, presumably liberian | Sea, Capo Rosello | 1 | 1 | 27 |
15-9-2002 | Porto Empedocle | 1 | M, presumably liberian | Sea, Capo Rosello | 1 | 1 | |
15-9-2002 | Porto Empedocle | 1 | M, presumably liberian | Sea, Capo Rosello | 1 | 1 | |
15-9-2002 | Porto Empedocle | 1 | M, presumably liberian | Sea, Capo Rosello | 1 | 1 | |
15-9-2002 | Porto Empedocle | 1 | M, presumably liberian | Sea, Capo Rosello | 1 | 1 | |
15-9-2002 | Porto Empedocle | 1 | M, presumably liberian | Sea, Capo Rosello | 1 | 1 | |
15-9-2002 | Porto Empedocle | 1 | M, presumably liberian | Sea, Capo Rosello | 1 | 1 | |
15-9-2002 | Porto Empedocle | 1 | M, presumably liberian | Sea, Capo Rosello | 1 | 1 | |
15-9-2002 | Porto Empedocle | 1 | M, presumably liberian | Sea, Capo Rosello | 1 | 1 | |
15-9-2002 | Porto Empedocle | 1 | M, presumably liberian | Sea, Capo Rosello | 1 | 1 | |
15-9-2002 | Porto Empedocle | 1 | M, presumably liberian | Sea, Capo Rosello | 1 | 1 | |
15-9-2002 | Porto Empedocle | 1 | M, presumably liberian | Sea, Capo Rosello | 1 | 1 | |
15-9-2002 | Porto Empedocle | 1 | M, presumably liberian | Sea, Capo Rosello | 1 | 1 | |
15-9-2002 | Porto Empedocle | 1 | M, presumably liberian | Sea, Capo Rosello | 1 | 1 | |
15-9-2002 | Porto Empedocle | 1 | M, presumably liberian | Sea, Capo Rosello | 1 | 1 | |
15-9-2002 | Porto Empedocle | 1 | M, presumably liberian | Sea, Capo Rosello | 1 | 1 | |
15-9-2002 | Porto Empedocle | 1 | M, presumably liberian | Sea, Capo Rosello | 1 | 1 | |
15-9-2002 | Porto Empedocle | 1 | M, presumably liberian | Sea, Capo Rosello | 1 | 1 | |
15-9-2002 | Porto Empedocle | 1 | M, presumably liberian | Sea, Capo Rosello | 1 | 1 | |
15-9-2002 | Porto Empedocle | 1 | M, presumably liberian | Sea, Capo Rosello | 1 | 1 | |
15-9-2002 | Porto Empedocle | 1 | M, presumably liberian | Sea, Capo Rosello | 1 | 1 | |
21-2-2003 | 1 | ? | Sea | 0 | 0 | 1 | |
15-3-2003 | 1 | M | Sea | 0 | 0 | 1 | |
19-3-2003 | 1 | M | Sea | 0 | 0 | 1 | |
14-5-2003 | Porto Empedocle | 1 | ?, black | Sea, lampedusa | ? | ? | 0 |
15-12-2003 | Aacate | 1 | Contrada Dirillo-Chiappa | 0 | 0 | 1 | |
24-3-2005 | Pozzallo | 1 | M | Sea, Sicilian coast | 1 | 1 | 0 |
24-3-2005 | Pozzallo | 1 | M | Sea, Sicilian coast | 1 | 1 | 1 |
24-3-2005 | Pozzallo | 1 | M | Sea, Sicilian coast | 1 | 1 | 1 |
24-3-2005 | Pozzallo | 1 | M | Sea, Sicilian coast | 1 | 1 | 1 |
24-3-2005 | Pozzallo | 1 | M | Sea, Sicilian coast | 1 | 1 | 1 |
24-3-2005 | Pozzallo | 1 | F | Sea, Sicilian coast | 1 | 1 | 1 |
24-3-2005 | 1 | M, oriental | During rescue operation at sea | 0 | 0 | 1 | |
8-9-2005 | Porto Empedocle | 1 | ? | Sea, Siciliana coast | 0 | ? | 2 |
11-9-2005 | Porto Empedocle | 1 | ? | Sea, Siciliana coast | 0 | 1 | 0 |
22-10-2005 | Porto Empedocle | 1 | ? | Sea, Lampedusa | 0 | 0 | 1 |
24-7-2006 | Acate | 1 | Harbor of Acate | 0 | 0 | 1 | |
24-7-2006 | Acate | 1 | Harbor of Acate | 0 | 0 | 1 | |
9-8-2007 | 1 | Joboo Dead MALIK | Found at sea on board of Chelyabinsk with 26 migrants alive, brought on land at Pozallo, report in registry | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
1-9-2007 | Pozzallo | 1 | Sea, Correnti Isle | 0 | 1 | 1 | |
Total | 55 | 39 | 41 | 57 |
Sources: Statu Civile Pazallo, Porto Empedocle; United; Fortress Europe; Italian Ministry of the Interior.
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