Paper details
| Paper authors | Maria Gabrielsen Jumbert, Kristina Roepstorff |
| In panel on | Making Live, Letting Die at Europe’s Borders – violence and resistance and human mobility |
| Paper presenter(s) will be presenting |
In-Person / |
Abstract
Since the official European Search and Rescue operations were dismantled in 2016, humanitarian NGO’s have filled a void in terms of needs for Search and rescue at sea in the Mediterranean. At a time, there were estimated to be a total of 11 different humanitarian NGOs operating at sea – Médecins Sans Frontières being one of the most central ones throughout different periods. However, these organizations are also frequently accused of facilitating and giving an incentive to people to attempt the risky, and often deadly route across the Mediterranean – sometimes even accused of ‘colluding with migrant smugglers’. Against this background and in the current political climate, the operating space is constantly narrowed in an effort to dissuade the rescue operations from continuing their operations. While this can be understood as part of notably the Italian authorities’ negotiation strategy, how do organizations like MSF respond to these situations – portrayed in the media as deadlocked situations at sea, with hundreds rescued waiting to be disembarked and brought to safety? Based on interviews with humanitarian aid workers involved in both SAR operations and related advocacy, we argue that there are three levels on which negotiations happen. Each of these levels – negotiations at sea, at the time of disembarkation, and at the broader EU level – happen in different physical and geographical spaces, with specific dynamics involved. Although the operating space of the SAR NGOs seems to be continuously restricted, and negotiations to seemingly little effect, understanding these different levels and levers that are pulled allows, we argue, to better understand developments over time in the overall responses to SAR situations in the Mediterranean - and to shed light on what is otherwise presented as 'deadlocked' situations.
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