Enforced Disappearances and Border Deaths Along the Migrant Trail

Following an emerging theoretical approach towards border deaths as ‘enforced disappearances’, this chapter explores the question of disappearance in the context of global migration. By placing the disappeared at the intersection of different historical settings and legal and political discourses, the chapter questions how ‘enforced disappearance’ operates as strategy of power, deterrence and control over migrant populations. By learning from experiences from other historical and political contexts it intends to offer a conceptual toolbox that can enable us to study the relationship between ‘disappearance’ and border deaths, the evolution of state violence across time and space, and the way counter-practices have reacted by pointing at state responsibility and impunity.