Chapter

Controlling migrants at sea during armed conflict

Martin D. Fink and Wolff Heintschel von Heinegg

Military operations and the notion of control under international law

The Hague : Asser Press, 2021

p. 219-233

English

Overseas migrant flows during armed conflict can present challenges for naval forces in terms of controlling the maritime operational area. Although armed conflict, refugees, migrants and displaced persons appear inherently interconnected subjects, they are separate issues when viewed from a legal perspective. Controlling the maritime areas, for instance by means of blockade operations, poses questions on how to deal with the duty to rescue migrants at sea. The laws of armed conflict at sea do not provide for rules that collides both issues. This chapter explores some of the questions that arise from the situation of migrant flows within maritime operational areas.

• Military operations and the notion of control under international law : Liber Amicorum Terry D. Gill / ed. by Rogier Bartels, Jeroen C. van den Boogaard, Paul A. L. Ducheine, Eric Pouw, Joop Voetelink