Olivier MARIE–CONSIDÈRE

Politics, Philosophy and Religion (Bailrigg) | Year 3 | Degree: Bachelor of Honour of Politics and International Relations

Security at the Euro-Mediterranean border.

This project focuses on the EU’s migration policy at the Euro-Mediterranean border regarding the management of illegal migrants. Migration flows punctuated by human tragedies in the Mediterranean Sea which have forced the EU to put in place arrangements for the protection of migrants, namely the interception of migrants smuggling boats and the reception of migrants in camps. The management of illegal migrants is done through an EU policy known as the “hotspot approach”. It was designed to create management zone of illegal migration on isolated Greek and Italian islands: “hotspots”.
The notion of hotspots is analysed from three angles to show how Mediterranean hotspots are specific.
Hotspots were first created to externalize the management of the migration crisis to the margins of the European continent, making hotspots the embodiment of the European border.
The violence of the migration crisis is expressed in these hotspots through a tough EU security strategy, however, coupled with a concern for the protection of refugees. This paradox, called the politics of “care and control”, reveals itself in the mobilization of key antagonistic actors such as the EU and states’ border security agencies and humanitarian associations.
The growing refusal of member states to welcome irregular migrants and the slowness of asylum demand system make these hotspots places of congestion where overpopulation and human misery are combined.

Olivier MARIE–CONSIDÈRE

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Olivier MARIE–CONSIDÈRE

Politics, Philosophy and Religion (Bailrigg) | Year 3 | Degree: Bachelor of Honour of Politics and International Relations

Security at the Euro-Mediterranean border.

The Mediterranean Sea: The deadliest border in the world

A report from the International Migration Organisation (IOM) called "Four Decades of Cross-Mediterranean Undocumented Migration to Europe" (2017) states that the Mediterranean border is "by far the world’s deadliest" with 33,761 reported deaths between 2000 and 2017

To what extent the European Union and some of its member states are producing an insecure bordered space in the Mediterranean Sea causing a growing degradation of irregular migration management?

An analysis of Greek and Italian 'Hotspots'.

'Hotspots' are small islands in the Mediterranean Sea where the management of irregular migrants is taking place.
It has been defined by the European Commission's 'Hotspot approach' "to fulfill their obligations under EU law and swiftly identify, register and fingerprint incoming migrants".

Example of the island of Lampedusa:
-Situated in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea it has a very special geography that enables Frontex (EU border security agency) and states coastguards to bring and maintain migrants caught at sea.
In this manner hostpots such like Lampedusa are considered to be semi-carceral places.

-Additionally islands like Lampedusa allows a relegation of the migration management off the continent

The European Asylum System:

-The Dublin Convention II (2003): "the Member State responsible for examining an asylum application lodged in one of the Member States by a third-country national"

It actually means that the only responsible state for asylum seekers management is the one of which migrants are present at its border.

At the begining of the crisis Greece and Italy were being 'left alone' in dealing with the management of migrants at their borders.
There is therefore no even sharing of the migration burden among European member states.
Countries like Germany or France are assuming a part of this burden but other like Poland refuse this even sharing of the migration burden, away from the Mediterranean dynamics.

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