Externalization of migration control: international legal guarantees against the erosion of refugee protection

Yildiz Demir, Ayse (2025) Externalization of migration control: international legal guarantees against the erosion of refugee protection. PhD thesis, University of Glasgow.

Abstract

Over 70,000 migrants have perished or disappeared since 2014, with the Mediterranean alone claiming 30,000 lives. These figures are not mere statistics; they signify the human cost of an evolving architecture of exclusion. Destination states, intent on preventing migrants from setting foot on their soil, have extended their borders outward—outsourcing migration control to transit states, private actors, and extraterritorial processing regimes. What emerges is a system designed to evade responsibility, where the right to life, the prohibition against torture, and the right to seek asylum are systematically eroded.

This thesis examines how interception operations, extraterritorial processing centres (EPCs), and readmission agreements (RAs) function as instruments of externalisation, shifting control beyond state borders while hollowing out international legal guarantees. Through jurisdictional loopholes and political manoeuvring, states detach themselves from direct responsibility, despite exercising effective control over those they seek to exclude. The principle of non-refoulement, long a cornerstone of refugee protection, is compromised when individuals are forcibly returned to unsafe territories through RAs, held in degrading offshore detention sites, or abandoned at sea following pushbacks. Yet international law does not permit such abdication of responsibility. This study contends that states cannot circumvent obligations merely by shifting migration control beyond borders. Whether through functional jurisdiction, extraterritorial human rights obligations, or principles of state responsibility, legal frameworks exist to hold externalising states to account. By mapping these legal avenues and exposing the structural injustices underpinning externalisation, this thesis argues for urgent reform to close the gaps that enable violations to persist under the guise of migration management. The erosion of legal guarantees is not an inevitable consequence of border control—it is a deliberate choice. The question remains whether and to what extent states will be responsible.

• Item Type: Thesis (PhD)
• Qualification Level: Doctoral
• Additional Information: Supported by Republic of Türkiye’s Ministry of National Education YLSY Scholarship.
• Subjects: K Law > K Law (General)
• Colleges/Schools: College of Social Sciences > School of Law
• Funder's Name: Republic of Türkiye Ministry of National Education
• Supervisor's Name: Pues, Dr. Anni, Ozcelik Olcay, Dr. Asli and Peevers, Professor Charlie
• Date of Award: 2025
• Depositing User: Theses Team
• Unique ID: glathesis:2025-85274
• Copyright: Copyright of this thesis is held by the author.
• Date Deposited: 01 Jul 2025 10:56
• Last Modified: 01 Jul 2025 10:59
• Thesis DOI: 10.5525/gla.thesis.85274
• URI: https://theses.gla.ac.uk/id/eprint/85274