The externalisation of the EU’s borders: a threat to the rights of refugees?

Abstract

This thesis explores the increasing common practice of the externalisation of borders. It delves into the ways in which the EU has been implementing this policy assisted by neighbouring countries with which, in the wake of the 2015 refugee-migrant crisis, concluded bilateral agreements. Indeed, the enforcement of the EU-Turkey deal and the Italy-Libya Memorandum of Understanding has been crucial to the delegation of migration management and border surveillance to the third states. The dissertation investigates their nature and content to find out how and which human rights of refugees are affected by them. Supported by a comprehensive socio-legal literature review, it problematises the controversial and highly debated concept of the safe third country and deepens the discussion on the right to asylum and the non-refoulement principle. Furthermore, it strongly emphasises the lack of the right to leave one’s country of refugees and the forced geographical, legal, social and existential immobility they face along their journeys. Overall, the work shows that the EU’s response to migratory influxes is arbitrary because, when it comes to making decisions in the field, notwithstanding its formal commitment to human rights, the externalisation of borders represents a threat to the rights of refugees.