With migrant maritime arrivals the subject of major policy and public focus in the Mediterranean, the Bay of Bengal, and elsewhere, this Migration Policy Institute volume reviews the policy responses to irregular maritime arrivals at regional, national, and international levels. While policy discussions once typically focused on rescue at sea, those today are more likely to be framed in terms of interception designed to address concerns of border protection, national security, and organized crime. The current, central dilemma is how to reconcile these concerns with international legal obligations and regional or global burden-sharing. This volume examines the state of the policy discussion on these and other salient issues surrounding irregular maritime migration, including case studies of recent developments in the major global hotspots: the Mediterranean, Gulf of Aden, Australia, and the Caribbean.
