p. 253
Persecuted people seeking asylum must first reach a territory where they can make a claim. Governments of countries in the Global North try to evade the spirit of refugee protection laws, while plausibly complying with their letter, by keep asylum seekers away from their borders using techniques of remote control. Legal scholars have rightly criticized the “hyper-legal” logic of these policies. The fact that so many people who are able to evade the deadly barriers have successfully gained asylum highlights tha these policies deliveratly prevent refugees from reaching sanctuary. The reluctance of governments to rescue drowning refugees at the conclusion of the Mare Nostrum program in the Med in 2014 encapsulates the basic logic of remote control of people seeking asylum. Leaders in the Global North know people are dying. As long as government agents and refugees are not situated in a common physical space, governments deny responsibility. By cracking down on NGos at sea, governments ensure that even private actors are not in a position to render aid or force the state to activate norms of rescue and sanctuary.”
p. 264 “In a speech to the European Parliament in 2014, Pope Francis… “We cannot allow the Mediterranean to become a vast cemetery!”.. Yet the Med continues to be a cemetery without graves. Since the 1930s it has swallowed Jews fleeing Nazi Germany, Eritreans and Ethiopians, Somalis and Syrians, and Palestinians fleeing Israel’s cage around Gaza. Buffering and interception takes place at sea, in Central American jungles, and deserts from Sonora to the Sahara.”
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