The European Union (EU) is currently facing an enormous challenge arising from the massive flux of refugees and migrants trying to reach its shores in unprecedented numbers since the Second World War. The European reactions to the rapidly deteriorating humanitarian and security situation in the Mediterranean revealed an incoherent chorus of responses torn between the border security and the human rights dichotomy. This panel explores the ambiguity surrounding the politics and policies of sea-born irregular maritime migration in Europe. On the one hand, the politicized fears about an alleged nexus between irregular migration, organized crime and terrorism have been exacerbated and manipulated by far-right and nationalist parties to justify widespread restrictive and preventive measures. On the other hand, such actions go against Europe’s humanitarian self-narrative portraying it as a ‘force for good’ committed to saving lives at sea and upholding human rights, and have thus challenged the legitimacy of the EU institutions and deepened its political crisis. The proposed panel intends to go beyond the usual norms versus interests division and the reality-rhetoric gap, by focusing on the empirical and analytical dimensions of three main lines of inquiry: (1) How does the EU conciliate different objectives when responding to the migration crisis in its neighborhood? (2) What does Europe’s stance towards irregular migration reveal about its nature as a (maritime) power in the global arena? (3) And finally, is the EU adopting a distinct – or rather similar – approach to sea-based migration compared to that of other international actors?