Mediterranean and Middle East

This Brief analyses the EU’s external policy on migration and asylum and the trend of externalizing migration control to neighbouring countries. It highlights how the current pro-active momentum in EU policy represents a chance for Italy as a frontline country to direct on-going discourse towards long-term and protection-sensitive solutions.
Throughout the last years, and in response to the increase in flows entering European soil via the Eastern and Central Mediterranean routes, the EU has strengthened its attempts to reduce entries by externalizing migration control instruments and concluding agreements with neighbouring countries such as Turkey. More recently, Italy has resumed its cooperation with Libya signing a bilateral memorandum, which has been immediately endorsed and reinforced by the EU.
In doing so, to a certain extent an old externalization and securitization approach has been replicated, which has long demonstrated its shortcomings if not counterbalanced by protection and cooperation instruments. The lack of a longterm cooperation perspective, the inability of partners to provide for the security and proper treatment of migrants on their territory, the absence of intra-EU solidarity and the lack of differentiation of flows are just some of the problematic aspects such approach has been criticized for.
This Brief calls upon EU Member States, with a special emphasis on Italy and other frontline countries, to advocate for a common European external asylum and migration policy which moves away from securitization and externalization towards real cooperation with its neighbourhood and a protection-sensitive entry system. Concrete suggestions are formulated, aimed at reconciling the legitimate focus on border security with the safeguard of fundamental values and with the ,need to attain long-term results.

Report from the field trip and seminar held in Berlin on 8 May 2017 and organized by Stiftung Mercator, Istituto Affari Internazionali (IAI), Istanbul Policy Centre (IPC) and Foundation for European Progressive Studies (FEPS) within the framework of the project “Turkey, Europe and the World: Political, Economic and Foreign Policy Dimensions of Turkey’s Evolving Relationship with the EU” (Global Turkey in Europe).

Many have described 2017 as a turning point for Italy’s external migration policies. A large portion of responsibility has been ascribed to Marco Minniti, a veteran of Italy’s secret services and since December 2016 Minister of the Interior in the centre-left coalition government led by the Democratic Party (Partito Democratico, PD). But what have been the fundamentals of Italy’s migration policy and what can one expect of these policies following the Italian elections on 4 March 2018?

When The New York Times made headlines in the migration world with its recent article “At French Outpost in African Migrant Hub, Asylum for a Select Few” about the French refugee agency’s role in the UNHCR humanitarian evacuation scheme, it was not long before the magical concept of “extraterritorial processing” resurfaced. This article takes a look at the UNHCR Emergency Transit Facility in Niger and the role of the French refugee agency.

The Mediterranean has always represented a main source of opportunities and challenges for Italy’s domestic and foreign policy. This strategic importance has also stemmed from the role that this region played in the construction and integration process of the European Union. The fact that both regions in the north and south of the Mediterranean Sea are currently experiencing deep internal crises does not diminish the importance of this geopolitical space and the EU’s resolution to project its influence over it. This report addresses the broad topic of ‘Italy in the Mediterranean’ in order to shed light on the drivers, priorities and concrete actions Italy has pursued vis-à-vis this region in the period 2016-2018. It argues that domestic and geopolitical changes as well as the lack of cohesion and solidarity among EU member states on specific issues, particularly migration, have been responsible for some important changes that have occurred in Italy’s Mediterranean approaches.