Abstract
At the height of the European Mediterranean migration crisis in 2016-2017, many EU member states abdicated their SAR responsibilities, and SAR NGOs filled the gaps in Mediterranean SAR. To discourage this practice as well as disincentivise irregular migration, the interested European member states initiated criminal and administrative proceedings against these actors. Aiming to contribute to the literature on the criminalisation of humanitarianism, this work con-ducts a case study on Italy, considering whether the initiation of SAR NGOs proceedings may affect the activities of the broader category of migrant rights defenders (MRDs) operating in the country. To make this assessment, this work relies on Penney’s theory of chilling effects, for which, in situations of legal or social ambiguity, individuals’ behaviour may be deterred or con-formed to socially accepted norms. After a contextualisation of SAR NGOs proceedings, this work used data gathered through qualitative interviews to identify the factors influencing the most Italian MRDs’ activities. The same set was also used for the identification of the groups to whose social norms MRDs may refer. On this basis, the application of Penney’s theory of chilling effects demonstrated that the initiation of SAR NGOs proceedings may produce chilling effects on the broader category of MRDs when their local community’s perception of migrant reception is negative and the individual MRD refers prominently to the social norms of this group. Furthermore, this work high-lighted that the perception of the proceedings as personalised enforcement as well as the employment of surveillance means may strengthen these effects. In this view, deterrence has been highlighted as potentially arising independently of social chilling effects when the initiation of SAR NGOs proceedings is perceived by the individual MRD as personalised enforcement targeting the broader category of MRDs. Lastly, this work underlined the relevance of personal norms in chilling effects assessments.