The application of the principle of non-refoulment by Italy and Malta

Abstract

The principle of non-refoulement has been a guiding and inalienable premise in the application of fundamental human rights of irregular immigrants all over the world. This has been addressed with the cases of ltaly and Malta, which, being the Southern doorways to the European Union, have been transformed into the receiving countries for irregular immigrants crossing the Mediterranean Sea from North Africa. Subsequently, this dissertation analyses the refoulement violations committed by Italy and Malta through push-backs and rejection of asylum applications, while referring to the European Court of Human Rights' (ECtHR) decisions. This study will extrapolate the policies and practices that the two states utilised to push back irregular immigrants in line with national interests. In fact, the Italian centre-right government under Berlusconi signed a Treaty with Libya to curb the influx of irregular immigrants. The ECtHR's decision on Hirsi Jamaa and others v Italy became significantly important as it acts as a warning to states that would attempt to act in such a way. Malta never implemented a similar policy with a third country. Nevertheless, it did breach the non-refoulement through a push-back in 2010 under the centre-right government, while the decision of the Hirsi case was used to stop the centre-left government from carrying out a push-back. With regard to rejected asylum applications, the European Union's Dublin Regulations proved to be detrimental to irregular immigrants. The cases of Aden Ahmed v Malta and Sharifi and others v Greece and Italy, amongst others, will demonstrate how the nation-states in question disregarded the non refoulement principle by maintaining those policies that caused this infringement. The role of national and international non-governmental organisations will be outlined in this dissertation. It has been crucial to not only raise awareness on infringements of human rights, but also in actively stopping breaches of the principle from occurring. This will be examined by reference to civil society's role in Malta's near push-back in 2013.