Strategies for tracking illegal immigration and mobility in maritime territories
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Afshin Karami |
Shahid Chamran University of Ahwaz , a.karami@scu.ac.ir |
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Abstract: (188 Views) |
Background and Theoretical Foundations: The sea is an important place where borders and border arrangements are multiplying, and it is a place where countries' maritime surveillance policies and strategies can be examined. The goal of national governments in maritime interception is to make their maritime territories impervious to undesirable elements and at the same time remain permeable to desirable groups and individuals as well as certain goods and services. The immigration policies of destination countries play an important role in the expansion of migration routes and smuggling operations. At the same time as the authorities make offshore arrangements, people smuggling operations also change their tricks and routes. All over the world, the intensification of border measures leads to the complexity of smuggling networks, and they are likely to take measures that increase the risk and cost of migrants' journeys. Interception at sea provides the possibility of spatial and geographical stretching of borders and has made maritime borders mobile. Migrants who are detained at sea are basically arrested for a crime they have not yet committed because they have not yet crossed the borders of their destination country. Countries of origin, destination and transit have each adopted different maritime strategies to contain and block the sea routes of illegal immigrants and it is important to identify and analyze these strategies.
Methodology: This research is descriptive-analytical in nature. Part of the information of this research has been prepared and analyzed through documents and libraries, and in the other part, it has been tried as much as possible from the information and data available on the websites of the International Organization for Migration, EU border guard and other databases related to migrants and maritime transit should be used. In this article, three types of spatial strategies in the field of maritime border arrangements in three separate regions are examined. In all three discussed regions, the destination countries take measures based on the concept of externalization. These measures are carried out with the aim of preventing immigrants from entering the sovereign territory and preventing access to a range of legal rights, social services and economic facilities.
Findings: The argument of this research is that the new geographies of executive measures have gained a special place and a set of spatial tracking strategies has cast a shadow over all territories where executive measures are applied. This research tries to identify these types of patterns in areas where national governments have invested heavily in maritime surveillance. To trace these patterns, the United States' maritime interception strategies and arrangements in the Caribbean and Atlantic Oceans, Australia's actions in the Pacific and Indian Oceans, and the operations of EU member states in the Mediterranean have been used as examples
Conclusion: The investigation of the maritime interception strategy shows that the national governments exercise their sovereignty with a geographically flexible method and while encroaching on the territory of others, they push their borders to the offshore side. As a result, the peripheral areas of the dominant powers' sovereignty are both ambiguous and flexible. The borders of powerful destination countries are less permeable and according to maritime interception strategies, they have expanded towards the sovereign territory of other countries. On the contrary, the borders of less powerful countries of origin and transit have become more permeable and are increasingly out of the control of their sovereignty. |
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Keywords: Sea, Territory, Illegal Immigration, State, Interception |
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Full-Text [PDF 1596 kb]
(40 Downloads)
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Type of Study: Research/ Original/ Regular Article |
Subject:
Marine Management / Geopolitic Received: 2023/09/17 | Revised: 2024/11/23 | Accepted: 2024/11/5 | ePublished: 2024/11/23
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