CELS Lunchtime Seminar: 'The EU Border Crisis: Questions for International Migration Law'

Speaker: Professor Bernard Ryan, Leicester University 

Abstract: 

This paper will consider several legal issues posed by the responses of the EU and its Member States to the ongoing Mediterranean migration crisis.  The starting-point is the European Court of Human Rights ruling in Hirsi Jamaa in February 2012, which held that a contracting state has responsibility for migrants intercepted or rescued by its vessels on the high seas. That ruling left EU states reluctant to engage in such operations, notwithstanding the risks to life in irregular sea journeys. Instead, states pursue alternative strategies of preventing the irregular arrivals of migrants by sea. The presentation will consider a number of international law problems which have arisen in this context: the extent of responsibility for rescue at sea, and for disembarkation after rescue; the right to leave a state to become an irregular migrant elsewhere; and, international responsibility for the actions of another state aimed at preventing irregular arrivals. The broad question is whether – in the spirit of the decision in Hirsi Jamaa – international law is able to govern the actions of states, so as to ensure full respect for human rights. Enquiries to: cels@law.cam.ac.uk