On Wednesday 5 March, the European Parliamentary Research Service (EPRS) delivered a harsh analysis of the Commission’s proposal on criminalising migrant networks and called for it to be withdrawn.
While the EU Council approved its mandate on the subject in late 2024 (see EUROPE 13533/17), Birgit Sippel (S&D, German), the Parliament’s rapporteur on it, has yet to submit her report and was awaiting this analysis in particular.
In November 2023 (see EUROPE 13302/11), the Commission proposed replacing two old texts from 2002 with a regulation concerning Europol and a directive laying down minimum rules to improve the effectiveness of prosecutions against people smuggling networks, clarifying the definition of the offence of trafficking and harmonising penalties.
But no impact assessment has been delivered, and the Parliament’s Research Service is therefore calling on the Commission to withdraw its directive until this has been done.
Among other things, the EPRS criticises the proposal for not being aligned with the United Nations Protocol against the smuggling of migrants and for incoherence vis-à-vis other EU legal instruments.
Further confusion arises from the interplay between the proposal to revise the directive on migrant facilitation and the proposal for a regulation to enhance police cooperation and strengthen the role of Europol. The new tasks and powers proposed for the agency are based on an unclear definition of “migrant smuggling” that is indirectly equated with facilitation offences, even in cases where they do not entail a profit element or a link to organised crime. “The two Commission proposals together may thus lead to the undue indirect extension of Europol’s powers contrary to its core mission”.
The Service also points to insufficient fundamental rights safeguards and is concerned about the possible criminalisation of the work of NGOs and legitimate service providers.
“Neither under the current rules nor under those proposed in the Commission reform is a distinction clearly made between abusive or exploitative action and action engaged in for humanitarian or solidarity reasons”.
The penalty scheme proposed also appears to be “disproportionately harsh (...) especially considering that, in certain cases, this concerns NGOs, family members, and migrants facilitating their own journeys, often for the purpose of seeking international protection”, explains the Parliament’s Service.
The NGO PICUM reacted to the study, which “reflects civil society’s concerns about the absence of a clear and binding clause exempting the provision of services and solidarity from criminalisation”.
PICUM has been “documenting a steady rise of criminalisation of solidarity with migrants in the past few years: at least 117 people were criminalised for helping migrants in 2023; at least 102 people in 2022, and at least 89 people between January 2021 and March 2022”.
The EU Council had chosen to deal with the issue of humanitarian work in a recital, leaving Member States room for manoeuvre in interpreting the directive.
Link to the study: https://aeur.eu/f/fr0 (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)