Skip to main content

LUP Student Papers

LUND UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES

Governing Rescue: An Analysis of the Piantedosi Decree and the Distant Ports Practice in Italy

Murzi, Martina LU (2025) MIDM19 20251
Department of Human Geography
LUMID International Master programme in applied International Development and Management
Abstract
This thesis investigates how Italy’s Piantedosi Decree and Distant Ports practice have reshaped the operations of Search and Rescue (SAR) NGOs in the Central Mediterranean. While existing literature discusses the securitization of migration and criminalization of humanitarian actors,less attention has been paid to the concrete impacts of recent legal and administrative measures on SAR operational capacity and strategy. Using a qualitative, inductive approach, the research draws on semi-structured interviews with SAR professionals and document analysis. The study is framed by governmentality, necropolitics, and the weaponization of time to examine how power is exercised over humanitarian actors and those they seek to protect. Findings show... (More)
This thesis investigates how Italy’s Piantedosi Decree and Distant Ports practice have reshaped the operations of Search and Rescue (SAR) NGOs in the Central Mediterranean. While existing literature discusses the securitization of migration and criminalization of humanitarian actors,less attention has been paid to the concrete impacts of recent legal and administrative measures on SAR operational capacity and strategy. Using a qualitative, inductive approach, the research draws on semi-structured interviews with SAR professionals and document analysis. The study is framed by governmentality, necropolitics, and the weaponization of time to examine how power is exercised over humanitarian actors and those they seek to protect. Findings show that the Italian state governs rescue not through prohibition, but by restructuring legal, spatial, and temporal conditions. Administrative detentions, distant port assignments, and conflicting mandates create a bureaucratic environment that delays, disrupts, and drains NGO operations. These measures both delegitimize SAR actors and normalize risk at sea. The thesis argues that such policies constitute a necropolitical regime in which humanitarian action is strategically constrained, visibility is managed, and mobility is controlled through time and space. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
Murzi, Martina LU
supervisor
organization
course
MIDM19 20251
year
type
H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
subject
keywords
Search and Rescue NGOs, Italy, Migration governance, Piantedosi Decree, Distant Ports Policy, Governmentality, Necropolitics, Weaponization of time
language
English
id
9193499
date added to LUP
2025-06-11 13:11:53
date last changed
2025-06-11 13:11:53
@misc{9193499,
  abstract     = {{This thesis investigates how Italy’s Piantedosi Decree and Distant Ports practice have reshaped the operations of Search and Rescue (SAR) NGOs in the Central Mediterranean. While existing literature discusses the securitization of migration and criminalization of humanitarian actors,less attention has been paid to the concrete impacts of recent legal and administrative measures on SAR operational capacity and strategy. Using a qualitative, inductive approach, the research draws on semi-structured interviews with SAR professionals and document analysis. The study is framed by governmentality, necropolitics, and the weaponization of time to examine how power is exercised over humanitarian actors and those they seek to protect. Findings show that the Italian state governs rescue not through prohibition, but by restructuring legal, spatial, and temporal conditions. Administrative detentions, distant port assignments, and conflicting mandates create a bureaucratic environment that delays, disrupts, and drains NGO operations. These measures both delegitimize SAR actors and normalize risk at sea. The thesis argues that such policies constitute a necropolitical regime in which humanitarian action is strategically constrained, visibility is managed, and mobility is controlled through time and space.}},
  author       = {{Murzi, Martina}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{Governing Rescue: An Analysis of the Piantedosi Decree and the Distant Ports Practice in Italy}},
  year         = {{2025}},
}