This article provides a re-conceptualization of human security by exploring humanitarian discourse in the EU periphery. It analyzes human security at the Mediterranean borders by focusing on humanitarian, migrant-centered discourse concerned with defending the world’s most vulnerable populations (Barnett in Annual Review of Political Science 16(1): 379-398, 2013). Empirical research has detected humanitarian discourse defending migrants’ rights, based on claims for the right to be free from inhuman treatment (Aradau in Millennium: Journal of International Studies 33(2): 251–77, 2004), as a counter-argument to the defense and closure of the borders. A humanitarian discourse focused on the alleviation of migrants’ physical and mental suffering erupted at the EU periphery when the Italian government denied a port of safety to the SeaWatch3 vessel in January 2019. This case study provides an example of center-periphery conflictual dynamics. The Italian government, defending the EU/Italian borders by closing the Italian ports, was challenged by actors mobilizing pressure, shaming the state into compliance and requesting pro-migrant legislation.

本文通过探索欧盟外围的人道主义话语，重新定义了人类安全。它通过关注与保护世界上最脆弱人群有关的人道主义、以移民为中心的话语来分析地中海边界的人类安全（Barnett in Annual Review of Political Science 16(1): 379-398, 2013）。实证研究发现了捍卫移民权利的人道主义话语，基于免遭非人待遇权利的主张（Aradau in Millennium: Journal of International Studies 33(2): 251–77, 2004），作为反驳边界的防御和关闭。当意大利政府于 2019 年 1 月拒绝让 SeaWatch3 船只进入安全港口时，在欧盟外围爆发了一场侧重于减轻移民身心痛苦的人道主义讨论。该案例研究提供了一个中心-外围冲突动态的例子。意大利政府通过关闭意大利港口来捍卫欧盟/意大利边界，但遭到行动者施加压力、羞辱国家遵守并要求支持移民立法的挑战。