Migrant Search and Rescue Operations in the Mediterranean by Humanitarian Organizations: Migrant Smuggling or Humanitarian Assistance?

Abstract

In contrast with the world's other migratory routes, the Mediterranean is the one where more migrants die or disappear in their attempt to reach Europe's coasts. Although different international instruments refer to the obligation of States and the captains of vessels to provide assistance to anyone who is in distress at sea, the truth is that there has been a progressive reduction in search and rescue operations by the European Union and its Member States. Faced with this inaction, various NGOs dedicated to humanitarian aid have deployed vessels in the Mediterranean in order to search for and rescue migrants in distress at sea. NGOs have come to play an important role in assisting migrants, although they have encountered substantial hostility on the part of certain States, which regard these NGOs as acting as accomplices in illegal migrant smuggling. Through an analysis of different measures by certain States to deter NGOs engaged in rescue operations in the Mediterranean and the current regulatory framework for combatting illegal immigration, this article aims to assess whether these humanitarian organizations can be considered to have been wrongly criminalized and what the consequences are from the perspective of the observance of human rights.