Migration Policy Centre - MPC

This webinar introduces EuroMesCo’s recent policy study Beyond Networks, Militias and Tribes: rethinking EU Counter-Smuggling Policy and Response
With the announcement of the new migra­tion package together with a new Se­curity Union Strategy in 2020, and the recent release of the European Union (EU) Action Plan against mi­grant smuggling (2021-2025) – both in the context of the COVID-19 pande­mic –there is momentum to reflect cri­tically on the actions and instruments the EU has deployed to counter mi­grant smuggling in the Mediterranean and beyond, and to propose what should be done differently under the forthcoming term.

This webinar introduces EuroMesCo’s recent policy study Beyond Networks, Militias and Tribes: rethinking EU Counter-Smuggling Policy and Response. The study acknowledges the EU’s counter-smug­gling strategy as an essential component of EU migration manage­ment discourse, policy and response. The strategy’s results have often been showcased as a sign of the strong collaborative ties between the EU and countries in North Africa and the Sahel. However, the strategy itself has raised significant questioning. Its strong focus on the Libyan case left examinations into smuggling dyna­mics in other regions like Algeria or the Canary Islands virtually untouched. It has also lacked inputs from third countries as well as their academic and policy voices (including those of junior and female researchers). The criminalisation under the migrant smuggling rubric of long-standing transportation and trade practices – in the process disturbing local, tribal economies –is believed to have furthered the marginalization of already precarious settings. The reliance on migrant returns, incarceration and detention practices, combined with the high death rate in the Mediterra­nean, all have raised questions over the human right implications of the strategy. Further­more, the focus on dismantling smug­gling operations has also been criticised for the way it deflects atten­tion from the reason at the core of the demand for smuggling services – the reduced availability of safe, orderly and regular paths for migration as outlined in the Global Compact for Mi­gration.

 
Speakers

 
Discussant: Luigi Achilli, MPC, RSCAS, EUI

 
Moderator: Gabriella Sanchez, Danish Institute for International Studies, DIIS