The law and the lifebuoy: legal responses to state repression of civilian search and rescue in the Mediterranean (Greece, Malta and Italy)

Abstract

Since 2015 civilian search and rescue (SAR) vessels have rescued more than 175,000 people in distress on the main Mediterranean migration routes, yet the governments of Greece, Malta and Italy have increasingly met these humanitarian efforts with criminal prosecutions, administrative blockades and hostile legislation. Framed by the Border Justice theory, this thesis investigates whether such measures amount to systematic state repression and how SAR organisations and civil society have mobilised the law in response. To map the evolving state practice and legal landscape, the research combines doctrinal analysis of international maritime, refugee, human-rights and EU law with eight semi-structured interviews conducted among SAR practitioners, lawyers and policy experts. The case-study comparison reveals a common, escalating repertoire of state repression: from smear campaigns and vessel seizures to the “closed-ports” policy, the enactment of targeted repressive legislation, and the outsourcing of rescues to Libya and Türkiye, measures that undermine the duty to render assistance at sea and shrink the sea’s normative humanitarian character. In response, SAR organisations and civil society have forged innovative litigation strategies before domestic courts, European tribunals and UN bodies that are beginning to check abuses, clarify state obligations and reopen humanitarian space in the Mediterranean. The findings highlight the transformative potential of legal mobilization in re-asserting the primacy of human rights at Europe’s maritime frontier.