Migrant boats on the high seas and their interception through psychologically coercive measures: Is there a case to extraterritorially apply human rights law?

During the last few years, States in the Pacific Rim as well as in the Mediterranean have engaged in the interception of migrant boats on the high seas assuming that since these interceptions take place outside their territorial boundaries, they are not governed by human rights law. In their attempts to intercept these boats, in some incidents, these States have employed non-physical, psychologically coercive means, such as warning shots, obliging migrant boats to give up any attempts to continue their journey. This article examines whether the use of such psychologically coercive means to change the boats’ change of route in the absence of initial physical contact between these boats and navy vessels, can constitute instances of effective control establishment and give rise to extraterritorial human rights law application