Ethics in AI Lunchtime Research Seminars - Power, Technologies and Migration Control: Rendering the Invisible Visible

Abstract: The employment of cutting-edge technology in the European Union’s external border management is transforming the way in which States acquire control over seaborne migrants and deconstructing traditional conceptions of border and territory. This paper illuminates a new generation of human rights violations pertaining on the high seas, where States’ conduct (actions or omissions) beyond their territory falls into a black tech hole. Burgeoning phenomena of abandonment at sea as well as contemporary forms of migrant pushbacks facilitated by border technology (e.g. surveillance drones) underscore the shortcomings in responsibility sharing. Such interventions (practices of exclusion) are arguably expressions of power and control that enable a risk-based approach to migration with the effects of the Banopticon. Through a conceptual analysis of power, this paper aims to render the invisible visible and bring to light and to consciousness the situation in the Mediterranean Sea.

We will run each seminar in a hybrid format, allowing audiences to join in-person or online. Please register to reserve your space.

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