How the EU threatens to criminalise solidarity with migrants
14 March 2025
A pending EU directive threatens a repressive crackdown on anyone who helps migrants in the EU. Meant to criminalise aiding and abetting the smuggling of migrants, the so-called Facilitation Directive was proposed by the European Commission in 2023 – but without a proper impact assessment study, and that shows.
In principle, it forbids people from helping migrants in return for money, which in practice also threatens anyone who helps for humanitarian reasons. In its current form, the directive's provisions call for member states to criminalise not just entering but also travelling through EU member states. This could include even providers of normal paid services, such as taxi drivers or car rentals, to migrants who aren't legal EU residents.
But it could also hit migrants themselves if they agree to carry out tasks assigned to them by traffickers (such as steering a boat) in exchange for a discount on the cost of their journey to Europe.
What's the sentence? The draft directive provides fines and prison sentences of up to three years for those who commit the crime of facilitating smuggling, and up to eight years when criminal organisations are involved, or when migrants are victims of violence or are unaccompanied minors or vulnerable persons.
 | Lorenzo Di Stasi According to figures collected by the NGO PICUM, at least 117 people were criminalised for helping migrants in 2023. On 5 March, the European Parliament's research service published a new study about the European Commission's proposed rules to tackle migrant 'smuggling'. The authors ask to refocus the proposal towards combating organised criminal networks – instead of expanding the definition of "smuggling" to activities not linked to organised crime, which would lead to the criminalisation of migrants and people who help them. The EU member states backed the plan last December. Next, the European Parliament will review the draft text in June, before agreeing on a position with the Council by the end of 2025. |
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