Don't Forget About Us: The Impacts of COVID-19, Forced Migration and The Future of Humanitarian Diplomacy

The exposure of migrants to several human rights violations are recurrent in perilous routes when a State is unable to protect them. Despite the COVID-19 pandemic and its consequent travel curbs, the number of migrants increased in 2021, according to official migration reports. Nevertheless, besides risks such as drowning, hypothermia and food insecurity, routes have become even more dangerous, due to COVID-19. Consequently, States adopted more restrictive migration policies in their territories. The pandemic has not only taken attention away from humanitarian crises, it has exacerbated them and conflict-affected areas were forgotten. In the context of mass influx, migrants have been seen as threats to national security like never before. During the pandemic, rescue at sea has been threatened by the refusal of States to allow the disembarkation of those rescued. Hence, NGOs appealed to the Italian government to end the Italy-Libya Memorandum of Understanding. This paper explores the impacts of the pandemic as security and safety risks faced by migrants on their journeys along the Central Mediterranean route to southern Europe. Adopting a broad view of human security and migration, we will analyze how Italy, a common transit hub, managed the arrival of migrants and asylum-seekers during the pandemic and the risks of expulsion or refoulement. The role of smugglers, health conditions and the right to liberty and protection from arbitrary detention will also be addressed. We aim to develop humanitarian diplomacy (HD) and evaluate its absence after COVID-19 hit Europe. HD remains limited, therefore, we will extend, combine it with migration diplomacy theory in the context of the pandemic, and analyze Italy's behavior towards migrants based on empirical evidence provided by international organizations.