MEPs Debate Proposed Laws On ‘Facilitation' Of Smuggling And Migration
Representatives in the EU's legislative arm are to begin debating new rules designed to prevent human smuggling and irregular migration around the bloc. The legislative package presented by the EU's executive arm has been criticized for treating migrants and people lending them assistance as criminals. It is argued the proposal - if made into law unchanged - could have serious implications for humanitarian workers and other people acting in solidarity with migrants..
Members of the European Parliament's Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE) are to begin debating the legislative package from the European Commission, known as the 'Facilitation Directive' in early April. The proposal, formally known as 'Preventing and countering the facilitation of unauthorized entry, transit and stay in the EU' is nominally designed to modernize Europe's legal framework to crack down on people smugglers and other vendors who 'profit' from irregular migration.
The proposal is not from scratch, rather a redraft of proposed changes to the existing 2002 Facilitation Directive. This week, European Member of Parliament (MEPs) in the relevant committee will begin debating the proposal from the commission, as part of its potential journey to adoption. They will be working from a draft report by socialist MEP Birgit Sippel, which highlights some of the major concerns about the proposal.
One of the main concerns addressed by the draft report is the danger that humanitarian workers might face criminal sanction for assisting irregular migrants on their journey, or indeed protecting their lives and wellbeing. Such 'criminalization' has already long taken place in various forms around European member states, including the detention of sea rescue workers by Italy, or the persecution of rights NGOs in Greece.
This practice is common enough to form a pattern. As Amnesty International notes in a recent policy paper on the directive, 'across Europe, member states have in fact targeted individuals and NGOs, providing non-profit humanitarian assistance - such as food, shelter, medical care, or legal advice - with criminal investigations and prosecutions.'
Human rights NGOs and civil society groups fear the Facilitation Directive might formalize that 'criminalization.' The PICUM charity, which works with undocumented migrants, welcomed MEP Sippel's draft report - which would exempt humanitarian workers from the new directive, but says a lot more needs to be done to stop people unfairly prosecuted.
'This text is a first positive step forward in the protection of solidarity actions, but more could be done to prevent the criminalization of migrants themselves,' said PICUM's Silvia Carta. "We stand ready to work with the European Parliament so that no one faces prosecution simply because they crossed a border or helped people in need'.
Aside from the humanitarian issue, the Commission proposal also contains many clauses that people fear are either too broad or are just irrelevant to protecting people on the move. These include definitions of facilitation that could see all manner of people who engage in commercial transactions with irregular migrants - think shopkeepers, taxi drivers, landlords - criminalized for in theory financially benefitting from people's journeys. At the same time, the proposal contains elements that could see migrants themselves prosecuted as 'smugglers' for taking some active part in their own journey, something that is already widespread among many reception countries in Europe.
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