Migrant boats on the high seas and their interception through psychologically coercive measures: Is there a case to extraterritorially apply human rights law?
| Author | Solon Solomon |
| Published date | 01 March 2019 |
| Date | 01 March 2019 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/0924051918824170 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
Article
Migrant boats on the high seas
and their interception through
psychologically coercive
measures: Is there a case to
extraterritorially apply human
rights law?
Solon Solomon
King’s College London Dickson Poon School of Law, London, UK
Abstract
During the last few years, States in the Pacific Rim as well as in the Mediterranean have engaged in
the interception of migrant boats on the high seas assuming that since these interceptions take
place outside their territorial boundaries, they are not governed by human rights law. In their
attempts to intercept these boats, in some incidents, these States have employed non-physical,
psychologically coercive means, such as warning shots, obliging migrant boats to give up any
attempts to continue their journey. This article examines whether the use of such psychologically
coercive means to change the boats’ change of route in the absence of initial physical contact
between these boats and navy vessels, can constitute instances of effective control establishment
and give rise to extraterritorial human rights law application.
Keywords
Migrant boats, high seas, human rights law, extraterritorial application, psychological measures
Introduction
In the first two decades of this century, there has been a considerable influx of boat migrants. These
‘‘boat migrant waves’’ can be traced geographically mainly to the Pacific Rim, the maritime area
between Australia and Indochina, and the Mediterranean.
1
They have been followed by State
Corresponding author:
Solon Solomon, King’s College London Dickson Poon School of Law, London, UK.
E-mail: solon.solomon@kcl.ac.uk
1. Violeta Moreno-Lax and Mariagiulia Giuffre, ‘The Raise of Consensual Containment: From ‘Contactless Control’ to
‘Contactless Responsibility’ for Forced Migration Flows’ in S. Juss (ed), Research Handbook on International Refugee
Netherlands Quarterly of Human Rights
2019, Vol. 37(1) 36–49
ªThe Author(s) 2019
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DOI: 10.1177/0924051918824170
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