The Securitisation of the EU External Borders and the Rise of Human Smuggling Along the Eastern Mediterranean Route: The Case of Afghan Unaccompanied Minors

This study investigates the relation between the strengthening of the EU’s external border control initiated since the 1990s, and the increase in migrant smuggling along the Eastern Mediterranean Route (EMR). Starting from the fact that two decades of growing investment into border controls by the EU has not stopped migration, but rather has increased the vulnerability of migrants and their reliance on smuggling, this research raises a number of questions about the functions and the implications of the EU’s borders control and presents a series of prospective political, geopolitical and humanitarian criticalities regarding the paradigmatic case of the Afghan unaccompanied minors (UAMs) smuggled along the EMR. The research will advance these arguments in the following order. Firstly, following a wide-ranging analysis of the EU’s border controls deployed along the EMR, it describes the latest developments from the route and describes the unintended effects of border control, such as the smuggling of human beings, the violations of human rights related to the externalisation of migration control, and the displacement of smuggling routes. Following, it scrutinises the case of the smuggled Afghan UAMs, by critically examining the main push factors behind the UAMs’ mobility, the major issues they experience along their smuggled path and the human rights violations faced in the transit countries before they manage to enter the EU. The chapter concludes by providing conclusions regarding priority areas in the field of migration management where further policy action is needed to overcome the identified gaps.