Breaking the legal link but not the law? The externalization of EU migration control through orchestration in the Central Mediterranean

Abstract

Transcending the established problem-solving perspective, this article proposes a novel conceptualization of orchestration as a strategy to escape legal responsibility. To test our conceptual argument, we study the case of EU migration governance vis-à-vis Libya in the Central Mediterranean. We show how legal constraints stemming from the 2012 Hirsi judgement of the ECtHR drove the EU from direct extraterritorial border operation to indirect orchestration via Libyan authorities. The EU used the orchestration techniques ‘assistance’, ‘endorsement’, ‘convening’ and ‘coordination’ to establish Libyan authorities like the coast guard as central intermediaries in the field of border patrol and search and rescue. These orchestration strategies increasingly replaced EU operations on the ground, thus posing new challenges for human rights protection.