Paper short abstract:

Searching for disappeared migrants is a process that entangles State and non-state actors. This contribution traces how this process is fraught with the intertwined logics of humanitarianism and securitisation, two conflicting views that make it difficult to conceive a politics of reparation.

Paper long abstract:

Border violence takes place in a way in a context of secrecy. Instrumentalising nature, EU policies force migrants to take more dangerous routes that expose them to harsh nature, often resulting in their death or disappearance. In the face of this, families of the disappeared, NGOs and civil society have mobilised to this violence visible and demand reparations, disputing EU’s States disposure of blame, and seeking State accountability from them.

Searching for disappeared migrants is a process that entangles different agents, including the State (police, judges, forensics), NGOs and civil society actors that accompany the loved ones of the disappeared, who are active in producing and processing data of migrants. The issue of disappearances involves the intertwined logics of humanitarianism and securitisation. These two share the fact that they rely on secrecy and data protection. In this contribution I ask the following questions: What is the role of data protection and secrecy in the issue of migrant disappearances? How do different actors (i.e. civil society) navigate secrecy when supporting the struggles of the families of the disappeared? How does the wider atmosphere criminalisation of migration and irregularised border crossings hinder the humanitarian efforts of search and identification? I rely on interviews with police, activists, and humanitarian actors in Spain as part of an ongoing research project dealing with the politics of reparations in the face of border violence, as well as in my own involvement with migrant solidarity structures providing support to relatives of disappeared migrants.