The European Union, Egypt and Libya. Curbing Irregular Migration at the Expense of Human Rights

Seminar paper from the year 2019 in the subject Sociology - Miscellaneous, Harvard University, language: English, abstract: This paper analyses human rights in the context of immigration to Europe. The European Union, Egypt and Liby will be the focus of the analysis. Conflict, poverty and climate change are amongst some of the drivers behind recent mass migration. In 2017, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) estimated that over 40,000 people have had to flee their house on a daily basis. The repressive political climate and the lack of economic opportunities in the Middle East and Africa have led to a massive migration flow into Europe that was exacerbated by the Syrian crisis. Although the majority of fleeing Syrian refugees reside in neighboring developing countries such as Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt and Libya, these countries are usually just transit countries through which migrants attempt to irregularly cross to Europe to start a new life.In 2015 and 2016, over 1 million migrant had crossed to Europe through the Mediterranean by boat. This surge in boat migration and the influx of migrants reaching the borders of Greece, Italy and Spain through different Mediterranean routes prompted the activation of restrictive policies designed to limit arrivals to European borders. By funding the Libyan and Egyptian governments to intercept migrants attempting to cross to Europe, the European Union (EU) is indirectly perpetrating human rights abuses.