‘State Responsibility for the Death and Disappearance of Refugees and Migrants’ is a two-year research project funded by the European Commission’s Marie Skłodowska-Curie Action Fellowship. The following paragraphs are taken from the introduction to the project and provide an explanation of its scope and content and its central thesis.

‘Though the known number of deaths and disappearances of refugees and migrants has increased exponentially over the last decade, these figures remain partial and represent only those whose deaths have been confirmed or whose disappearances have been reported.  The actual figure remains unknown and unknowable, owing to a combination of factors discussed in this book.  In the scenarios that commonly arise today and that result in the death or disappearance of refugees and migrants, most involve the absence of a direct causal relationship between the State and the refugee or migrant that would otherwise establish the jurisdiction of the State over the individual, requiring it to observe certain obligations at law.  This is not accidental.  The integration of a heightened risk of death and disappearance is increasing a common feature of contemporary migration management.  It is both a fundamental consideration in the design of law, policy, and practice, intended to deter and control the clandestine movement of people, and a foreseeable outcome of its implementation.  It is intended that the heightened risk of death and disappearance translates into a fear and avoidance of dangerous migration routes and contributes to a reduction in the number of refugees and migrants that would otherwise attempt a clandestine crossing.  While in reality, this does not necessarily transpire, it should nonetheless be noted that in integrating such risks into migration management systems, those scenarios that commonly result in the death and disappearance of refugees and migrants not only involve the absence of a direct causal relationship between State and individual, they require it. 

Contemporary migration management systems – being the combination of legal architecture, physical infrastructure, and the realities of implementation – implicitly (and in some cases, explicitly) rely on the death and disappearance of refugees and migrants as a method to control and deter unauthorised migration and refugee movement.  This can be observed in a great number of places, but it is particularly notable in regions where death and disappearance occur at an extraordinarily high rate.  These include the US-Mexico borderlands, the Darién Gap separating Colombia and Panamá, the Channel Crossing between France and the United Kingdom, the Mediterranean crossings between Libya and Italy, and between Turkey, Greece, and Cyprus, in the Bay of Bengal, and in the Andaman Sea.  It is these locations that form the basis of this research.’