“On the high seas it is not possible for the asylum seeker to be identified by state authorities and therefore to apply for asylum, either to the flag state or to the state of the nearest port. States, in other words, do not they can initiate the procedure for granting asylum while the applicants are on the high seas “. Thus Fiammetta Borgia, Associate Professor of International Law of the Department of Law at the University of Rome “Tor Vergata”, as well as a Member of the Italian Society of International Law (Sidi) and in particular of the Interest Group on the Law of the Sea, intervenes with the Adnkronos on the possibility of requesting international protection on board humanitarian ships, to establish the responsibility of managing the relief of shipwrecked migrants on the flag State.
According to the expert, “it is true that every ship is subject to the jurisdiction of the flag state on the high seas but this does not apply to the asylum request, as the jurisdiction of the flag state, enshrined in Article 92 of the Montego Convention Bay, concerns facts and events that took place inside the ship and not with an external projection. On the contrary, the jurisdiction of the coastal State could be extended to the facts and events that occurred in the ship, even when the ship is in international waters but close to territorial sea, and there is a close connection with the mainland. And this happens for example in the case of criminal offenses, which have nothing to do with the request for asylum “.
“Therefore the jurisdiction deriving from the flag State is not necessarily sufficient to assume that the request for asylum can be made”, concludes the jurist, who signed, among other things, on 12 June 2018 of an open letter on the need for balancing of interests and protection of human life at sea, drawn up by the Interest Group on the Law of the Sea of the Italian Society of International Law and addressed to civil society. (by Roberta Lanzara)
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