Against the Tide: The Counter-Repression Strategies of Sea Rescue Organizations in the Mediterranean

• Published date: 01 September 2023
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/00027162241248062
• Author: Federico Alagna,Eugenio Cusumano
• Date: 01 September 2023

ANNALS, AAPSS, 709, September 2023 105

DOI: 10.1177/00027162241248062

Against the

Tide: The

Counter-

Repression

Strategies of

Sea Rescue

Organizations

in the

Mediterranean

By

FEDERICO ALAGNA

and

EUGENIO CUSUMANO

1248062ANN THE ANNALS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMYAGAINST THE TIDE

research-article2024

Since 2017, Italian authorities have repressed nongov-

ernmental sea rescuers operating in the Mediterranean

Sea. These repressive practices have been enacted

irrespective of the ideological orientation of the gov-

ernments in office, but have evolved over time. The

strategies devised by civil society organizations to resist

repression have adapted accordingly, encompassing a

range of activities such as the dissemination of counter-

narratives aimed at desecuritizing migration, the estab-

lishment of alliances with sympathetic state actors, the

reflagging or replacement of the ships used for rescue

operations, and engagement in legal mobilization. This

article examines how the repressive practices of the

Italian government and the counter-repression actions

of civil society organizations influenced one another

from 2017 to 2023. We show that although governmen-

tal repression reduced civil society’s rescue operations,

the organizations’ ability to adapt and engage in

counter-repression strategies has ensured the continu-

ation of their lifesaving activities.

Keywords: criminalization; repression; search and

rescue; civil society; migration; European

Union; Italy

In the summer of 2018, then–Italian Interior

Minister Matteo Salvini attacked civil society

organizations (CSOs) rescuing people on the

Correspondence: federico.alagna@sns.it

Federico Alagna is a postdoctoral researcher in the

Faculty of Political and Social Sciences at Scuola

Normale Superiore, Italy, and adjunct professor of

political science at the University of Bologna, Italy. His

work explores the European Union migration govern-

ance, particularly the criminalization of people on the

move and civil society actors.

Eugenio Cusumano is a full professor of political sci-

ence at the University of Messina, Italy. He is currently

leading a research project funded by the Italian

Research Ministry to investigate migration governance

across the Mediterranean Sea.

NOTE: We wish to thank the interviewees for being so

generous with their time and for the significant contri-

bution made to this study. We are also grateful to the

editors of this volume and to the editorial team of the

journal for their feedback and support.

106 THE ANNALS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY

move in the Mediterranean by declaring Italian ports closed to their ships, threat-

ening criminal sanctions and exorbitant fines for those entering Italian waters,

and even labeling a humanitarian vessel a “pirate ship” (Matteini 2018).

Salvini’s approach was not entirely new, but built on the repressive practices

initiated by the previous government. Since then, a diverse set of policies and

discourses have intensified the repression of sea rescue organizations, not only in

Italy but among European Union (EU) nations more broadly (Allsopp, Vosyliūtė,

and Smialowski 2021; Carrera, Allsopp, and Vosyliūtė 2018). Repressive dis-

courses and practices have been implemented by different actors, including the

law enforcement sectors of member states like Greece and Croatia as well as the

EU Border and Coast Guard Agency Frontex. Despite this growing repression,

CSOs have continued saving lives.

In this article, we focus on the Italian case, which—given the importance and

deadliness of the Central Mediterranean corridor connecting North Africa to

Italy—is crucial to understanding ongoing repression at maritime borders and its

implications. Between 2014 and 2023, at least 22,000 people on the move lost

their lives off the coast of Libya (International Organization for Migration, n.d.).

In response to this tragedy, a variety of CSOs, ranging from established interna-

tional charities like Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) to ad hoc national groups

like Mediterranea Saving Humans (MSH), have engaged in maritime rescue

operations, saving no fewer than 110,000 people between 2014 and 2017 alone

(cf. Cusumano and Villa 2021). The repression of their activities from 2017

onwards has arguably worsened the death toll for people on the move and

increased the relative lethality of undocumented crossings (Cusumano and Villa

2021; Heller and Pezzani 2017).

In this study of the repression of solidarity at sea, we disentangle the way in

which the Italian government’s repressive dynamics and civil society attempts to

circumvent restrictions and engage in counter-repression strategies influenced

one another from 2017 to 2023. In addition, we examine how this interaction has

affected migrant mobility across the Central Mediterranean route.

By “repression,” we refer to a variety of discourses, policies, and practices that

have been used to restrain the activities of civil society sea rescuers. These

include intimidation (e.g., public stigmatization or threats), policing (e.g., control

and surveillance measures), and full criminalization (i.e., the use of criminal law

instruments to prosecute those engaging in solidarity) (cf. Fekete 2018). In our

theoretical approach, intimidation, policing, and criminalization are the three

milestones of governments’ repressive spectrum (see Figure 1), which, in turn,

affect the CSOs’ counter-repression strategies that we discuss below.

Empirical evidence on the repression of solidarity at sea reveals a complex

patchwork of discourses and practices that governments have employed, with two

core dynamics at play. On the one hand, there was continuity in the tendency to

repress the activities of sea rescue organizations in Italy between 2017 to 2023,

regardless of the ideological orientation of the government in office. On the

other, repression evolved into a diverse set of policies. As the outright criminali-

zation of CSOs has not yet delivered any convictions but rather rallied—in some

measure—public support for these organizations, Italian governments have