Crossing the Mediterranean Sea by Boat: Mapping and Documenting Migratory Journeys and Experiences

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Current policy interventions urgently need assessing in light of unprecedented levels of migration and a catastrophic increase in refugee and migrant deaths across the Mediterranean Sea. While refugee and migrant deaths en route to the European Union are by no means new, the level and intensity of recent tragedies is unprecedented. More than 1850 deaths were recorded January-May 2015, demanding swift action on the part of EU Member States. This project produces a timely and robust evidence base as grounds for informing policy interventions developed under emergency conditions. It does so by assessing the impact of such interventions on those that they affect most directly: refugees and migrants themselves.As migratory pressures increase across North Africa, sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East, EU leaders have committed to a strengthened presence at sea, while fighting trafficking and smuggling networks, and extending cross-regional cooperation in order to prevent 'illegal migration flows'. Although there remain significant continuities in EU policy, developments in the region have shifted quickly under emergency conditions. Triton, a joint border management operation coordinated by the European external border agency Frontex, replaced the Italian search and rescue operation Mare Nostrum in autumn 2014. Triton's rescue capacities increased in early 2015, alongside a renewed focus on cross-regional migration and development cooperation, such as through the Khartoum and Rabat processes. New EU efforts to disrupt smuggling and trafficking networks in the region have also been initiated through the EUNAVFOR Med naval operation. These developments urgently need assessing in terms of their impact on refugee and migrant movements across the region. The EU has emphasised the importance of reinforcing internal solidarity between Member States and fostering shared responsibility through cross-regional cooperation. Nevertheless, such concerns reflect a policy agenda that has thus far had limited success in providing effective protection or settlement outcomes for refugees and migrants crossing the Mediterranean by boat. A renewed assessment of policy interventions is therefore pressing. This project undertakes such an assessment by engaging the journeys and experiences of refugees and migrants, asking: What are the impacts of policy interventions on migratory journeys and experiences across the Mediterranean? How do refugees and migrants negotiate complex and entwined migratory and regulatory dynamics? In what ways can policy be re-shaped to address migrant deaths at sea?Developments in search and rescue, anti-smuggling, and preventive mechanisms cannot be assessed in isolation from those who are most directly affected by such developments. An approach grounded in the journeys and experiences of refugees and migrants is thus urgent in order to effectively assess the impact of policy interventions across the Mediterranean. The project produces a robust evidence base that explores the effects of policy interventions on refugees and migrants across the region, focusing on three EU island arrival points in Greece, Italy and Malta. Qualitative interview data, both textual and visual, is produced through an interdisciplinary participatory research approach, and made available through the UK Data Service. This data is subject to a timely initial and on-going analysis, and is disseminated through research briefs and reports, project workshops and a conference, a project website, academic journal articles, as well as via various media outlets.The project contributes: an interdisciplinary perspective on the legal and social implications of policy interventions in the region; a comparative perspective on migratory routes and methods of travel across the Mediterranean; a qualitative analysis of the journeys and experiences of refugees and migrants; and methodological insights into participatory research under emergency conditions.