Editorial : the subject of rights immersed in a "Sea of Troubles"

Abstract

Given the multiple human rights issues implicated by migratory flows, the topic of this special issue of our journal may appear excessively open-ended. In reality, however, the themes addressed by our contributors represent controversial flashpoints in the Mediterranean migratory process as well as in the legal and political responses such migration provokes. These include the replacement of traditional intra-regional migration by more globalised migration, the rise in both the number of undocumented "irregular" immigrants and in mixed migratory flows, the increasingly restrictive immigration policies imposed by Southern European states, the concomitant tendency to resort to asylum law in order to identify legitimate immigrants, and the more prominent role being assumed by EU laws and policies in the field.