Description
The current migration crisis in the Mediterranean has influenced the development of new European Union policies. From the use of the Navy to implement the EUNAVFOR Operation Sophia in the Mediterranean, to the training of Libyan coastguards, or the EU-Turkey agreement, the EU has designed policies that seem to fail at both avoiding migrants from reaching Europe and from drowning in the Mediterranean. The crisis of the Aquarius, in June 2018, showed a real possibility of a similar tragedy to the one in Lampedusa in 2013, which paradoxically, it was the catastrophe that brought the attention of the society to the migration crisis in the first place, and put pressure on the EU to develop policies that could avoid similar outcomes. While recent literature on the migration crisis focuses on the role of Italy and Greece, Spain is also considered both, a transit, and destination country for migrants from African countries and in particular from Morocco for a long period of time. This paper aims to critically analyse the conflicting responses from Europe to the migration crisis with a focus on the Spanish involvement (i.e the Aquarius). This analysis will critically discuss also how some NGOs such as “Open Arms” and other Spanish activists dedicated to the rescue of migrants in the sea, have been questioned from a legal point of view. Finally, this paper will discuss to what extent Spanish bilateral agreements with Morocco could have an impact on the migration crisis in the Strait of Gibraltar.
