Humanitarian Borderwork in Libyan Detention Centres : NGO Role Constructions and Negotiations with EU Externalised Migration Governance

Sammanfattning

This thesis examines how international non-governmental organisations (NGOs) operating in Libyan detention contexts construct and negotiate their roles within EU externalised migration governance. Using a qualitative constructivist approach and discourse analysis inspired by Gee (2014), the study analyses NGO-produced documents published between 2017 and 2025. The findings demonstrate that NGOs construct themselves simultaneously as principled humanitarian actors, witnesses and critics of EU migration governance, whilst remaining operationally embedded within the very systems they condemn. The analysis reveals how detention centres function as spaces where humanitarian care and migration control converge, informed by Pallister-Wilkins’ (2017) ‘humanitarian borderwork’ and Dadusc & Mudu’s (2022) ‘care-control nexus’. At the same time, NGOs negotiate tensions surrounding neutrality, legitimacy, access and complicity within EU externalisation structures. By focusing on NGO discourse, this thesis contributes to migration scholarship through an actor-centred analysis of how humanitarian organisations position themselves within EU externalisation in Libya.