The minimalist approach of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (1982) (“UNCLOS”), a 163 member multilateral treaty sometimes known as the ‘constitution of the oceans,’ and in relevant respects, reflective of customary international law of the sea, allows for strong anti-immigration territorial sovereignty arguments in contravention of its rescue provisions. Because of the perceived need to tighten border security, and the actions of some European States to close borders entirely, it is necessary to reassert the binding nature of these rescue provisions in their traditional construction, as defined by their historical origins, to prevent wrongful infringement of the customary law of the sea’s duty to rescue.