The Gates of the Sea: Migration and Rescue at the Edges of Europe

Across the European Union, the politicization of sea migration has transformed maritime rescue systems into tools of border enforcement. Focusing on Spain’s maritime rescue agency (Salvamento Marítimo) and drawing on two decades of fieldwork, this research shows how humanitarian principles rooted in international law are being eroded by migration control policies. The presentation examines the foundations of maritime rescue, the history of Spain’s sea rescue agency, shifting migration routes in the Western Mediterranean and Atlantic, and rescue crews’ resistance—led by the CGT union—to becoming border guards, challenging Europe’s politics of organized abandonment.

Luna Vives is an Associate Professor in the Department of Geography at the Université de Montréal and the Director of the Centre Jean Monnet de Montreal. Her research explores how governments use borders to filter and exclude certain groups of people. Her work has been published in academic journals including Geopolitics, Political Geography, the Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, and the Journal of Borderland Studies. She contributes regularly to print media and radio.

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