Dr Felicity Attard, a lecturer at the University of Malta’s Faculty of Laws, and an international maritime law specialist, has given a number of interviews to international media outlets on the current migration crisis in the English Channel and the maritime territory crisis in the East Mediterranean.
Speaking to the BBC, and quoting the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, Dr Attard says a country has a right to act in its waters when faced with inbound vessels carrying migrants intending to commit a contravention of the coastal state’s immigration laws – yet any action being taken must also take humanitarian considerations into account.
Interviewed by the Middle East’s leading English-language news portal, The National, Dr Attard spoke about the fact that maritime territory “must be established in an agreement and should represent an equitable solution”. This might present a challenge when islands attempt to claim exclusive economic zones due to longstanding rivalries.
In an article published by Agence France-Press titled ‘Turkey’s bid to become maritime powerhouse unsettles Mediterranean’, Dr Attard adds more insight to the topic, saying the Turkish-Greek dispute was compounded by differences of policy between the two countries with respect to the status of Northern Cyprus, making it a particularly volatile situation.
Dr Attard was a teaching assistant at the prestigious Queen Mary, University of London and has been invited to lecture at the International Maritime Organisation in London, the University of London, the University of Ferrara, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Cyprus, and the Women's International Shipping & Trading Association (WISTA) in Batumi.
She published articles in learned journals such as the Journal of Maritime Law & Commerce, as well as Benedict’s Maritime Bulletin, and authored the monograph ‘The Duty of the Shipmaster to Render Assistance at Sea under International Law’ published by Brill in its Queen Mary Studies in International Law series.