Criminology, Humanitarianism, and the Right to Life at the Border

Criminology has, in the past decade, begun to engage more actively with the field of humanitarianism as well as human rights mechanisms. This chapter aims to (a) map this engagement in the field of studies of border control; (b) examine the convergences and tensions between the focus on humanitarianism and human rights, and (c) examine some empirical examples where these tensions are being played out, among others, in the trend toward juridification of ‘vulnerability’ in the EU context and the operationalization of the right to life at the EU's external borders. The chapter concludes by a reflection on what a criminological approach more attuned to achieving migrants’ rights might look like.