THE EXERCISE OF STATE POWER OVER MIGRANTS AT SEA THROUGH TECHNOLOGIES OF REMOTE CONTROL: RECONCEPTUALIZING HUMAN RIGHTS JURISDICTION

Abstract The employment of cutting-edge technology in the European Union's external border management is transforming the way that States acquire control over seaborne migrants and deconstructing traditional conceptions of border and territory. This article sheds light on a new generation of human rights violations on the high seas, where people's rights become contingent on their geographical location which is increasingly traceable by monitoring bodies. Amidst the burgeoning phenomena of abandonment at sea and contemporary forms of migrant push-backs, this article contends that human rights jurisdiction ought to be reconceptualized in functional terms to capture new modalities of State power, that if and when exercised, can amount to effective control, triggering a State's human rights obligations.