Esternalizzazione delle frontiere: violazione dei diritti umani dei migranti e responsabilità dello Stato

Recently, in order to face the growing waves of migration, some States and the European Union have practiced the externalization of border control. This is a policy implemented, above all, through the conclusion of agreements or understandings with Countries of transit or origin which, however, did not produce the desired effect of completely preventing arrivals and ended up infringing the rights of migrants and asylum seekers. The purpose of this strategy is to speed up the procedures or, better, the return of the asylum seekers whose origin is ascertained from a Safe Third Country. It is a policy that arouses many concerns as it entails a de-responsibility of the delegating Country that takes on the management of migrants and the responsibility that can derive from it to the delegated Countries. The latter do not often respect fundamental rights also because they are not party to the international Conventions related with their protection. Recently, the externalization of borders has shown all its erosive potential towards fundamental rights, already prefigured by a broad doctrine. In this analysis, two aspects will be analyzed because they represent the indicators of the inadequacy of the current externalization policy to face the migration emergency in the long term: the crisis on the Greek-Turkish border in February 2020 and the question of international responsibility of Italy, for violation of human rights, relating to the implementation of the Memorandum with Libya of 2017, actually under the scrutiny of the European Court of Human Rights in the pending case S.S. and Other v. Italy. These two profiles clearly highlight the need for a decisive change of course and a more far-sighted policy that respects the fundamental rights of migrants.