Lampedusa 2011. A Failed Stress-Test from Migration Control Policies

This paper examines, from a criminological perspective, the decisions taken by the Italian government in 2011 and their consequences on migrants, arguing that the events which happened in Lampedusa in 2011 were not a dramatic failure of Italian immigration policies, due to the uniqueness of the situation, but new evidence of the inaccuracy of migration control laws and policies enforced by Italian authorities. The immigration control policies were the result of a combination between a securitarian and a humanitarian approach. What is almost always lacking is a rights-based approach.