The Atlantic route (Canary Islands) has received 23.000 migrants in the last year. The same year that the European Commission passed the New Pact on Migration and Asylum. According to this pact, newcomers should remain confined in centres until they are categorized as “irregular migrants” or “legitimate asylum seekers”. The aim of this paper is to question this institutional strategy of contention, screening and refusal by analysing both national and EU law, with special attention to the freedom of movement. I will combine legal and jurisprudential materials together with field work empirical data to argue that these Islands are becoming a de facto laboratory of a new version of the “hotspot approach”.
We look forward to welcoming you on July 3-5, 2023 for our Annual Conference entitled "Islands and Ocean: Public Law in a Plural World." The conference will take place at the Victoria University of Wellington, in New Zealand.
Call For Papers and Panels