PhD student: Mr F.A.J. Peerboom

Promotors: Mrs Prof A. Ott, Mrs Dr E. Tsourdi

Duration: 1/5/2022 - 30/4/2028

Abstract:

This research project focuses on the increasingly common practice of migration 'instrumentalisation', i.e. 'those cross-border population movements that are deliberately created or manipulated in order to induce political, military and/or economic concessions from a target state or states'. While 'using migrants as a political tool' in this way is globally speaking not a novel occurrence, European interest in the phenomenon has only recently picked up now that the EU and its Member States are claiming to be increasingly targeted by it. Despite the contemporary saliency of migration-related issues in the EU and recent increased attention in the media and the political sciences for its claimed instrumentalisation, from a legal standpoint this phenomenon remains underexplored. This study will conduct an in-depth public international- and EU legal scrutiny of this phenomenon. Thereby the project explores the the existing lacuna in the legal literature and intends to provide clarity on the legality of the use of 'instrumentalisation' practices and that of potential responses adopted by its targets from the perspectives of (i) Public international law; (ii) EU migration/asylum law, and; (iii) International and EU human rights law.