A Gradual Relinquishment of National Sovereignty? A Comparative Analysis of Europe’s Response to Boat Migrants in Search of Asylum

Abstract

The central

research question of this paper is why have European states, in contrast to

their counterparts in Southeast Asia, the United States and Australia,

attempted to abide by the Refugee Convention’s non-refoulement stipulation when responding to boat migrants seeking refuge in their territory in the 2000s. I first briefly discuss how this paper fits into discussions about the 'gap hypothesis' and then provide a succinct overview of how states in other areas of the world have responded to boat migrants in search of asylum since the 1970s, emphasising their disregard for the Refugee Convention. I then turn to Europe and show that in the 1990s, there was a similar reaction in Europe when dealing with boat migrants seeking protection. However, this changed in the 2000s. I spend the rest of the paper explaining why. The principal reasons I put forward relate to the growing influence of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) on states' asylum policies. Since Italy has received significant numbers of boat migrants in search of asylum since the early 1990s, it features most prominently although references are also made to Spain and Greece.