Human security at the Mediterranean borders: humanitarian discourse in the EU periphery

Abstract

This article provides a re-conceptualization of human security by exploring humanitarian discourse in the EU periphery. It analyzes human security at the Mediterranean borders by focusing on humanitarian, migrant-centered discourse concerned with defending the world’s most vulnerable populations (Barnett in Annual Review of Political Science 16(1): 379-398, 2013). Empirical research has detected humanitarian discourse defending migrants’ rights, based on claims for the right to be free from inhuman treatment (Aradau in Millennium: Journal of International Studies 33(2): 251–77, 2004), as a counter-argument to the defense and closure of the borders. A humanitarian discourse focused on the alleviation of migrants’ physical and mental suffering erupted at the EU periphery when the Italian government denied a port of safety to the SeaWatch3 vessel in January 2019. This case study provides an example of center-periphery conflictual dynamics. The Italian government, defending the EU/Italian borders by closing the Italian ports, was challenged by actors mobilizing pressure, shaming the state into compliance and requesting pro-migrant legislation.

Mind the gap! Organized hypocrisy in EU cooperation with Southern neighbor countries on international protection

“…Recent research has emphasized the central role of humanitarian concerns in the EU discourse about external action, as it was the case of the human and humane approach to manage migration depicted in the Pact on Migration and Asylum , launched by the European Commission in 2020 (Panebianco, 2021). A humanitarian approach with a migrant-centered focus is shared by non-state actors engaged with migration management in the EU periphery (Panebianco, 2022b), while it is difficult to implement at a macro, EU level. Our conceptualization of the EU's humanitarian approach draws on the critical security studies' definition of human security, that puts human beings at the center of the analysis (Kaldor et al ., 2007) and identifies individuals as the referent objects of security (Kerr, 2010).…”

“Fortress Europe is an insult to the values of the EU”: The legitimation of migrant acceptance in the human security speech acts of Members of the European Parliament

“…However, human security within the field of international relations (IR) looks at migrants as individuals occupying an insecure position. For instance, Panebianco (2021) argues that various local actors on the Mediterranean borders have been able to put migrants at the center and have opposed a national narrative based on an exclusionary security discourse. Moreover, the research shows that in the EP plenary debates human security speech acts prevail over security speech acts (Krotký & Kaniok, 2021).…”

Refugee Crisis in Mediterranean

“…Since the beginning of the Syrian civil war, refugee crisis became a phenomenon that deeply affected the borders of European Union Member States where security threats permeated political discourse focusing on border closures where centre-right political leaders often depicted refugees as criminals not to be accepted in European Union territory and adopted exclusionary policies and most of the research on EU border security has focused on securitization, conceived of as the capacity to control borders, manage threats and identify spheres of orders (Panebianco, 2021). In their paper Stefania Panebianco (2021) In Central Europe, Hungarian government lost three court cases regarding breaches of international obligations.…”

“…Since the beginning of the Syrian civil war, refugee crisis became a phenomenon that deeply affected the borders of European Union Member States where security threats permeated political discourse focusing on border closures where centre-right political leaders often depicted refugees as criminals not to be accepted in European Union territory and adopted exclusionary policies and most of the research on EU border security has focused on securitization, conceived of as the capacity to control borders, manage threats and identify spheres of orders (Panebianco, 2021). In their paper Stefania Panebianco (2021) In Central Europe, Hungarian government lost three court cases regarding breaches of international obligations. Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) ruled that Hungary had failed to fulfil EU law obligations by refusing to relocate asylum-seekers within the mandatory scheme set up in solidarity with Italy and Greece where a month later the Court also ruled that Hungary's automatic detention of asylum-seekers in border detention centres known as ''transit zones'' breached EU legislation as the detention measures were disproportionate, exceeded the maximum time limit, and could not be challenged in court and while initially protesting the judgement, the government vacated the transit zones the same month.…”