Browsing by Subject "Maghreb"

Agreeing on a common migration system in the EU has turned out to be extremely challenging due to various reasons, and when the calls for responsibility-sharing and solidarity have not worked, the EU has turned to rely on third countries. In practice, this means that some of the EU’s migration and border policies have seen a transfer of responsibility, where countries of origin or transit take on some of the migration and border management originally managed by a destination country, in return for financial support. This is a strategy often deployed by wealthier states to prevent migration flows and ease the pressure on their own migration system, going under the name externalisation. As states adopt stricter laws on migration and impose stricter border controls, ways of entering countries are reducing. This consequently leads to people having to rely on irregular means to migrate, paving the way for a ‘migration industry’ that favours profit-driven actors to take advantage of. This Master’s thesis will reflect on this growing trend in the field of migration policy, by focusing on the Northern African countries going under the collective name of Maghreb as the receiving countries of externalised policies. This group of countries have become popular transit (occasionally destination) countries for migrants trying to reach the South European countries in attempts that can best be described as perilous and life-threatening journeys.