States bordering the Mediterranean Sea and the Channel are leaving many migrants to their fate. By doing so, they are failing in their legal obligations to identify and protect actual and potential victims of human trafficking. This article challenges the legal position of these States, providing a creative construction of EU and Council of Europe law on human trafficking and European human rights legislation. The work first focuses on how the obligations towards asylum seekers, migrants distressed at sea and victims of trafficking interrelate and overlap; and reflects on the implications of the different statuses. It then considers whether the multiple international maritime law treaties that bind State signatories in respect of rescue-at-sea missions provide protection for actual and potential victims of human trafficking. It undertakes an analysis of European anti-trafficking legal regimes, which include the Council of Europe Convention against Human Trafficking, Article 4 of European Convention on Human Rights and the EU Trafficking Directive. Finally, the article focuses on the UK as a case study. The piece argues that the international law of the sea, whilst aiming at saving lives of people stranded in the high sea, does not guarantee the identification and protection of human trafficking victims amongst those being saved. For this, we need to look to European human rights law. The article claims that a State’s responsibility for the identification and protection of victims extends beyond the geographical remit of its territorial jurisdiction.
Ventrella, MatildeMorano-Foadi, Sonia
School of Law and Social Sciences
Year of publication: 2022Date of RADAR deposit: 2024-08-12
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