New Technologies in International Law / Tymofeyeva, Crhák et al.

in a manner that shift the focus of humanitarian efforts towards preventing migration flows at all costs – even one’s life. Against this backdrop, this contribution explores how the employment of technology (e.g., aerial and maritime surveillance drones) in the EU’s external border management is transforming the way States acquire control over seaborne migrants and deconstructing traditional conceptions of border and territory. The belief that border externalization and surveillance technologies can assist in tackling migration movements is gaining momentum. Thence, the incorporation of state-of-the-art technologies has led to a sharp expansion of States’ powers that has arguably become a double-edged sword. Whilst the increasingly technological nature of borders helps the EU’s effort to halt irregular migration flows, 881 it also segregates mobility and has created a bulwark to accessing international protection. Relatedly, the border becomes a vital point of surveillance, where mobilities and identities are under the remote control of State authorities. 882 This has allowed for a risk-based approach to border management whereby technologies used and deployed do not have as their primary goal the management of migration but rather ‘to remove obstacles to the function of the internal market or to fight terrorism or other forms of organized cross-border crime’. 883 This Chapter is structured as follows. The first section presents the gradual digitalization of the border by examining extraterritorial State practices together with the evolving European policy approach in the Mediterranean region. Following, the second section documents the discernible impact of technologies on the human rights of migrants, which has resulted in border violence, the preclusion of entry and a rise in border deaths. The third section maps these practices by analysing two contemporary distress incidents that have taken place in the Mediterranean waters, documenting how State power through technologies of control has been exerted over migrants at sea from afar. 1. Contemporary Manifestations of State Power in External Border Management By definition, migration is a source of human mobility that is best described as a geographical phenomenon characterised by the movement of people across borders and geographical spaces. 884 In Europe, third-country nationals who do not carry the requisite visa documents for legal entry are often forced to take dangerous migration journeys, with the sea route being the most prominent. Conversely, migration policies Military Operation in the Mediterranean (EUNAVFOR MED IRINI) . 881 Dijstelbloem H, Meijer A and Besters M, ‘The Migration Machine’ in Dijstelbloem H, Meijer A (eds), Migration and the New Technological Borders of Europe (Palgrave Macmillan, 2011), p. 3. 882 Amoore M, Marmura S and Salter M, ‘Editorial: Smart Borders and Mobilities: Spaces, Zones, Enclosures’ (2022) 5(2) Surveillance & Society 96, p. 97. 883 Rijpma J, ‘Brave New Borders: The EU’s Use of New Technologies for the Management of Migration and Asylum’ in Cremona (ed), New Technologies and EU Law (OUP, 2017), p. 209. 884 Könönen J, ‘Legal geographies of irregular migration: An outlook on immigration detention’ (2020) 26(5) Population Space and Place 2340, p. 5.

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