Research Overview

On February 03, 2017 Heads of State and Government of the Member States of the European Union at the end of an Informal Summit in Malta adopted the Malta Declaration to cooperate with Libya on external migration to control the influx of irregular migration, smuggling and human trafficking along the Central Mediterranean Route to the European Union. The agreement provides technical, policing, naval equipment and financial support to the Libyan coast guard and other authorities to intercept, push back and return migrants to Libya and countries of origin. This agreement has been criticized by many human rights treaty bodies, legal experts, human rights and humanitarian NGOs who argue that the Declaration circumvents EU asylum law and violates the universal principle of non-refoulement under the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees. The goal of this research project is to examine the extent to which the Malta Declaration breaches the non-refoulment principle.