The interest of suppressing migrant smuggling at sea is to be considered as part of state sovereignty and the state’s right to migrant control. This combat against criminal activity at sea is a balance between state security interest and ensuring the safety of migrants on board suspected vessels. There are a rising number of voluntary rescue organisations at sea that face trials, suspected of aiding migrant smugglers. This is a problematic fact against the big need for search and rescue operations. Despite the perilous nature of sea-crossings, maritime migration is a common phenomenon. Betweenyear 2014 and year 2020 there were20 959people reported dead in the Mediterranean Sea. Public international law provides the duty to render assistance at sea. The legal area of maritime rescuealsocoversthe coastal state dutyto promote the establishment and maintenance of adequate and effective search and rescue service. This thesis aims to analysethe conflict between the, within state sovereignty, right to control immigration and the state duty to render assistance at sea. Using aninternational legal perspective, it examines the extent of the state duty of maritime rescue.Furthermore, it examines the regulation concerning migrant smuggling and asks whether the measures taken by states against the smuggling of migrantsat seais in line with international law. The analysis concerns areas within international law of the sea, international refugee law as well as international human rights law. Vital regulations are the principle of non-refoulement and the right to life.The examination shows that the right to life reinforces thestate duty to render assistance at seaand that the principle of non-refoulement collides with extraterritorial migration control. Furthermore, it shows that the criminalisation of voluntary organisations at sea collides with the state duty to promote an effective search and rescue service. In summarythis analysis displaysthat the state interest of combating migrant smuggling wrongfully takes priority over the duty to render assistance and the respect for human rights concerning migrants at sea
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:su-193264 |
| Date | January 2021 |
| Creators | Fagerström, Sara |
| Publisher | Stockholms universitet, Juridiska institutionen |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | Swedish |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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