Violation of the International Legal Framework on Rescue at Sea

The irregular migration routes are largely organized by smuggling and trafficking networks. Taking advantage of international obligations and human rights law, these criminalized networks have become innovative and strategic. The Central Mediterranean Sea is infamously connoted with the irregular migration phenomenon travelling in irregular means in overcrowded unseaworthy vessels often resulting in fatalities of deaths at sea. The smugglers’ innovative strategy is to first cross the irregular migrants’ boats from the territorial sea of Libya and then leave them stranded at sea, waiting to be rescued by Member States patrol boats or private vessels. Once stranded at sea for days or weeks, the irregular migrants have suffered from starvation, dehydration, suffocation and even violence from human smugglers. In accordance with the international legal framework on Search and Rescue (SAR), captains of vessels have the obligation to rescue them. This research argues that Italy has adopted a new irregular migrant containment strategy in the form of SAR activity discouragement. Their objective is to disengage these smuggling and trafficking networks. To discourage the irregular migrant crossing, the Italian strategy is to prevent and thus stop captains of private vessels or SAR NGOs from responding to rescue calls at sea through criminalizing SAR operations without prior authorization of the disembarking coastal state.. This paper argues that the criminalization measures against captains of vessels is argued to violate the international legal framework on search and rescue, international obligations and international human rights law. This research analysis how border enforcement measures and closed border policies under the pretense of the pandemic have negatively impacted upon the rights of refugees and asylum seekers travelling in an irregular manner by sea.