Luna Vives (Université de Montréal) - Liquid graveyards: Migration management and the suspension of responsibility in the European Union

Abstract: Over the last decade, more than 30,000 people have drowned on their way to Europe. These deaths are a direct consequence of current EU border and migration policy. In the absence of safe and legal routes to flee violence and poverty and with land routes increasingly closed, people on the move have turned towards the sea to reach EU territory. Looking at statistical and geospatial data, this presentation looks at how EU member states’ have actively transformed their search and rescue (SAR) systems to avoid their responsibility to protect human life in zones of migration. We will also look at how the New Pact of Migration and Asylum could contribute to the hardening of rules surrounding maritime SAR.