Over the last few decades, both the European Union and European States
have been implementing various strategies to externalize border controls
with the declared intent of saving human lives and countering smuggling
but with the actual end result of shifting borders, circumventing
international obligations and ultimately preventing access to Europe.
What has been principally deplored is the fact that externalizing border
controls risks creating 'legal black holes'. Furthermore, what is
particularly worrying in the current European debate is the
intensification of this practice by multiple arrangements with unsafe
third countries, exposing migrants and asylum seekers to serious human
rights violations.
This book explores whether European States can succeed in shifting their
responsibility onto Third States in cases of human rights violations.
Focusing, in particular, on the 2017 Italy-Libya Memorandum of
Understanding, the book investigates the possible basis for triggering
the responsibility of outsourcing States. The second part of the book
examines how the Italy-Libya MoU is only a small part of a broader
scenario, exploring EU policies of externalization. A brief overview of
the recent decisions of the EU Court vis-à-vis two aspects of
externalization (the EU-Turkey statement and the issue of humanitarian
visas) will pave the way for the conclusions since, in the author's
view, the current attitude of the Luxembourg Court confirms the
importance of focusing on the responsibility of European States and the
urgent need to investigate the possibility of bringing a claim against
the outsourcing States before the Court of Strasbourg.
Offering a new perspective on an extremely topical subject, this book
will appeal to students, scholars and practitioners with an interest in
European Law, International Law, Migration and Human Rights.
