EURO-MEDITERRANEAN EXPERIENCES ON MANAGEMENT OF MIGRATION GOVERNANCE

Central Mediterranean migrations have led to a series of initiatives by successive
Italian governments, initiatives aimed at countering the arrival in the ports of the Peninsula of boats
with people rescued at sea. Two are the guidelines followed: the “outsourcing” of the migratory
phenomenon’s management, which began in particular through the “Memorandum of Understanding
on migrants” stipulated with the government of Tripoli on 2 February 2017; and the “disengagement”
with respect to Search and Rescue activities at sea, gradually limiting the direct involvement and
above all discouraging these operations by NGOs, “guilty” of attracting rescued persons to the
Italian jurisdiction.
In 2018 and 2019, the two so called “security decrees” arrived. These decrees provide, among
other things, measures to combat the phenomenon of irregular migration by sea at all costs, including
through a progressive detachment from the international commitments undertaken.
In this Note I would like to dwell in particular on a single aspect of the “security decree bis” (n.
53/19 converted by law n. 77 of 8 August 2019) which concerns the interpretation of the right of
innocent passage in the territorial sea, an institution codified by the United Nations Convention on
the Law of the Sea signed in Montego Bay in 1982 and ratified by Italy in 1994.