Since the nineties, the member states of the EU and Schengen have constructed more than 2000 km of walls and fences to prevent people from entering Europe. This is more than 13 times the length of the Berlin wall. Most of these border barriers have been erected after the so called \u2018refugee crisis\u2019 of 2015\/2016 and are located at the EU\u2019s Eastern border. The erection of fences is often described as a response to irregular migration and terrorism, and to migration claimed to be ‘instrumentalized’ by Russia and Belarus. The closure of borders can however interfere with fundamental rights obligations under international and EU law, requiring states to offer arriving persons an opportunity to seek asylum, and to enjoy protection if the need can be established.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The core idea of this study is to explore the role of fences under EU migration and border control law and to contribute to the research field of critical migration law studies with a contextually grounded legal analysis of how border barriers affect the conditions under which fundamental rights can be enforced at the EU\u2019s Eastern borders. The approach of the study is inspired by legal geography \u2013 a field that addresses the complex co-constitution of law and space \u2013 and combines legal doctrinal method with on-site observations and interviews in Finland and Poland. The study is timely and needed to address contemporary border control practices that challenge the enforcement of fundamental rights, and \u2018fences off\u2019 Europe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"template":"","class_list":["post-6065","project","type-project","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n