Fit for Purpose? The Facilitation Directive and the Criminalisation of Humanitarian Assistance to Irregular Migrants
This study was commissioned by the European Parliament’s Policy Department for Citizens’ Rights and Constitutional Affairs at the request of the LIBE Committee. With renewed efforts to counter people smuggling in the context of an unprecedented influx of migrants and refugees into the EU, it assesses existing EU legislation in the area – the 2002 Facilitators’ Package – and how it deals with those providing humanitarian assistance to irregular migrants. The study maps EU legislation against the international legal framework and explores the effects – both direct and indirect – of the law and policy practice in selected Member States. It finds significant inconsistencies, divergences and grey areas, such that humanitarian actors are often deterred from providing assistance. The study calls for a review of the legislative framework, greater legal certainty and improved data collection on the effects of the legislation.
Study
External author
Sergio CARRERA, Elspeth GUILD, Ana ALIVERTI, Jennifer ALLSOPP, Maria Giovanna MANIERI and Michele LEVOY
About this document
Publication type
Keyword
- application of EU law
- civil society
- cooperation policy
- criminal law
- criminal law
- EC Directive
- economic geography
- EU finance
- EU financing
- Europe
- EUROPEAN UNION
- European Union law
- France
- GEOGRAPHY
- Germany
- Greece
- human rights movement
- humanitarian aid
- Hungary
- illegal migration
- integration of migrants
- INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
- Italy
- LAW
- migration
- Netherlands
- political geography
- POLITICS
- politics and public safety
- SOCIAL QUESTIONS
- Spain
- trafficking in human beings
- United Kingdom