A part of Europe’s external migration policy in the Mediterranean has been to externalise control of migration flows through bilateral agreements with Libya.

In a new article for the Journal of Migration Studies, Eugenio Cusumano and Marianne Riddervold explore why the EU and European member states continue to rely on institutional arrangements with Libyan authorities to govern irregular migration despite the problematic legal, ethical and political implications.

Cusumano and Riddervold argue that “offloading migration management on Tripoli is puzzling due to the fragility of its institutions, the ill-preparedness of its security forces, and widespread abuse against migrants” and that “the EU has failed through the migration crisis in the Central Mediterranean by drawing on already established albeit ineffective and contentious policy tools.”

Read the full open access article “Failing through: European migration governance across the central Mediterranean” here.

Eugenio Cusumano is an Assistant Professor at Leiden University.

Marianne Riddervold is a Research Professor at the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs and Professor at the Inland Norway University of Applied Sciences.