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The aim of this paper is to present the issue of border traffic of foreigners and their expenses on the Polish maritime border. The study is based on quantitative data on border traffic and expenses of foreigners in Poland. The time of the study was 2014–2021. Thus, the impact of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic on foreigners’ mobility and spending in Poland was additionally taken into account. For the purpose of this paper, the following study methods were adopted: reference literature analysis, secondary data analysis and comparative analysis. The paper mainly uses data from official statistics and the Border Guard. The study has shown that the Polish maritime border generates the smallest volume of border traffic, however, its share increased during the analysed period from 0.7% in 2014 to 0.8% in 2021. Nevertheless, it is foreigners crossing the maritime border who on average spend in Poland more than twice as much as foreigners crossing the Polish land border. In 2020, they spent the most on non-food goods (40%) and services (34.7%). As the study results reveal, their spending patterns and travel purposes are different from those of foreigners crossing the land border. The potential that foreign visitors bring is significant for the development of border areas in such sectors as tourism, services and trade. The analysis of the motivation of foreigners crossing the sea border makes it possible to shape the regional development policy of this particular area.

This study presents the first comprehensive, data-driven analysis of irregular maritime migration from Lebanon to Europe between 2019 and 2022. Amid Lebanon’s economic, political, and social collapse, sea departures surged, becoming a critical survival strategy for refugees and Lebanese nationals alike. By triangulating 150 sources including the Lebanese Armed Forces, UNIFIL, media outlets, humanitarian NGOs, and cross-validating with UNHCR, International Organization for Migration, and Frontex, the study compiles a unified, publicly accessible dataset mapping departures, routes, interceptions, and casualties. Findings show a tenfold increase in attempts, from 208 individuals in 2019 to over 2,500 in 2022, alongside a sharp rise in Lebanese nationals among those departing. The analysis traces a geographic expansion of departure points, a shift toward longer and riskier routes to Italy, and escalating smuggling costs reflecting growing commercialization. Allegations of systemic corruption, state complicity, and weakened enforcement capacity further compound risks at sea. Beyond documenting trends, the study challenges narratives that frame Lebanon solely as a refugee-hosting state, repositioning it as an emerging origin point within Mediterranean migration systems. It provides essential empirical infrastructure for policy and scholarship while situating observed patterns within broader crisis dynamics without asserting causal claims.

Asylum seekers and refugees currently living in Indonesia tend to see Indonesia as a transit rather than a destination country, despite the fact that their stays are increasing in length. Based on contact with Muhamad (not his real name), a young refugee from Iran currently residing in Indonesia whose adjustment and development I observed over four years, I illustrate the changing priorities in his decision-making, the constant flux of circumstances and context, and the extreme complexity of primary and secondary factors that come into play in planning for the future. Combining a macro perspective with a case study, in which I present excerpts from several life-story interviews, helps to exemplify these generic migratory challenges and distil a range of relevant parameters that influence the decision-making of asylum seekers and refugees in transit. A (self-)critical reflection on ethical and methodological challenges underpins my analysis and argument, not least because politicians and policymakers are increasingly interested in influencing migratory decision-making processes to gain political advantage. Of particular interest in my analysis is the role of Australia’s deterrence policies in asylum seekers’ decision-making. Despite the ethical challenges associated with studying migratory decision-making—as public knowledge of migration strategies can also suppress aspirations of mobility—I argue for more in-depth and longitudinal research. At the very least, this is because more intensive, yet considerate studies of decision-making will help us to take seriously the migratory aspirations of people with limited choices.

This article examines current energy-related disputes in the Eastern Mediterranean. It does so by situating them in the context of the Middle East’s broader geopolitical landscape and by showing how global powers’ interests and involvement have become contingent on the international and regional political environments. The latter augmented the intensity of the contestation and helped move identifiable and tangible factors, such as Exclusive Economic Zones, into the imaginative realms of geopolitics. They also provided the concerned actors with opportunities to balance out their adversaries and, by implication, diminished their willingness to compromise. Although the global powers’ interest in Eastern Mediterranean energy resources is limited, the European Union does have interests in these reserves and related aspects. The fact that the monetisation of these resources is highly dependent on the EU market provides the EU with an immense amount of “buyer power” to stabilise the region and potentially balance the fears of both Greece and Turkey.

The exponential increment of commodity exchange has raised the need for maritime border security in recent years. One of the most critical tasks for naval border security is ship detection inside and outside the territorial sea. Conventionally, the task requires a substantial human workload. Fortunately, with the rapid growth of the digital camera and deep-learning technique, computer programs can handle object detection tasks well enough to replace human labor. Therefore, this paper studies how to apply recent state-of-the-art deep-learning networks to the ship detection task. We found that with a suitable number of object queries, the Deformable-DETR method will improve the performance compared to the state-of-the-art ship detector. Moreover, comprehensive experiments on different scale datasets prove that the technique can significantly improve the results when the training sample is limited. Last but not least, feature maps given by the method will focus well on key objects in the image.

Throughout the first decades of the 21st century, the maritime borders of the European Union have witnessed a growing and increasingly complex mobility of an irregular nature. Moreover, the effects of the COVID-19 crisis on many African countries revealed the weakness of the maritime border and its permeability, as well as its increased danger. This research aims to study these irregular migration flows by sea during 2020 and 2021, through the Atlantic border between the Canary Islands and Africa. The so-called “Canary route” is one of the most dangerous maritime routes in the world due to the ocean conditions, the distances that must be covered and the way in which migrants move. Our analysis will therefore focus on one of the central aspects of this crossing, its danger and associated accident rate, which can be measured in terms of the number of shipwrecks, deaths, and missing persons. The objectives of this paper are: i) to show the spatial location of those wrecks; ii) to give an estimate of data on missing persons and deaths; iii) to focus on the study of those persons affected; iv) to delve into the underlying causes; and v) to analyse the border control actions developed during the pandemic. With this aim, information has been compiled from different national and international sources: official records, contrasted data provided by some NGOs and the IOM, and testimonies of the agents involved. This material is used to reflect on the normalization of border control as a factor that inevitably leads to deaths and disappearances. It suggests that this event should be a central element in European migration policy, contributing to designing border control actions that go beyond containment, thereby preventing the loss of human lives.

The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has a legitimate claim under international law to large areas of oil-rich maritime territory currently held by Angola. Access to this territory would make the DRC the second or third largest oil producer in sub-Saharan Africa. Yet the DRC has repeatedly and consciously avoided making effective claims to this territory and its oil. By analysing the history of the Congolese actions (and inaction) towards this territory, this article demonstrates why this is the case. Primarily, both Kabila regimes became reliant on and indebted to Angola, and, as a consequence, effective and final claims to maritime zones were never made. These claims were, however, not absent: non-regime figures in the DRC kept some claims alive, and the regime has at different times used the dispute as political leverage in order to secure Angolan backing, which would otherwise be uncertain. Within this, we show how an apparent attempt at compromise was both skewed in Angola's favour and undermined by DRC regime actions. Overall it is demonstrated that the DRC's concerns about regime security are the primary determinant of outcomes in this dispute, and it has consistently prioritised regime survival and short-term rent-seeking over oil development.

Tensions between Japan and its neighbors pose a significant problem for the viability of Japan's strategic 'dual hedge' between China and the United States. Japan's response has been to embrace renewed US commitment to the region while initiating comprehensive strategic partnerships in military, economic, and political spheres with nations 'south' of its traditional domain of strategic interest. Strengthened relationships with Southeast Asian nations, India, and Australia may turn out to be crucial for Japan as it will enable Japan to manage its security affairs without having to depart from its long-cultivated maritime security policy, and will enable Japan to continue to pursue a neo-mercantilist economic policy while also supporting the socioeconomic development of other regional players essential for future multipolar balance. Japan's diplomatic activities provide a useful 'strategic contrast' with China that will likely ensure Japan is accepted in the region. Japan's strategic pivot is also domestically sustainable and, therefore, deserves scholarly attention.

Security of national borders requires utilization of multimedia surveillance systems automatically gathering, processing and sharing various data. The paper presents such a system developed for the Maritime Division of the Polish Border Guard within the STRADAR project. The system, apart from providing communication means, gathers data, such as map data from AIS, GPS and radar receivers, videos and photos from camera or audio from phone calls and SMS messages, from multiple mobile units and stationary points located along the coastline. All gathered data can be visualized on a multidisplay by the personnel that can dynamically select presented data and configure form of presentation. The paper describes system functionalities, its hardware and software implementation, and presents results of acceptance tests that the system have recently passed.

Destination states of irregular migration aim to prevent arrivals by controlling their borders outside their territory, specifically on the high seas. This practice may best be described as the de-territorialization of border control at sea. The de-territorialization impacts the applicable legal framework, in particular the safeguards to which individuals submitted to the control activities are entitled. This article posits that the principle of non-refoulement is a fundamental yardstick for the de-territorialization of border control and applies wherever competent state authorities perform border control measures. The argument develops in four steps. After outlining the content of the principle of non-refoulement, this article defines maritime borders and elucidates their functional nature. It then outlines how the principle of non-refoulement applies at sea and translates into a ‘principle of non-rejection at the maritime frontier’. The article finally highlights the principle's legal and practical consequences in the context of de-territorialized border control.