This paper outlines the position of Equinox Initiative for Racial Justice on the EU’s Facilitators Package. We hold that any policy response to the issue of smuggling must reverse the harmful criminalisation of migration embedded in the Facilitators Package approach, and instead explore avenues to address the root causes of harm in migration routes.

‘Smuggling’ as a phenomenon is a symptom of the EU’s inhumane approach to migration. The EU’s punitive turn in migration control, characterised by increasing resources, legislation and enforcement mechanisms deployed to criminalise movement, has contributed to a vast increase in violent and exploitative methods used against the practice of movement to Europe.

Our position highlights the detrimental impact of further criminalising migration through the Facilitation Directive and Europol Regulation, texts which endanger refugees, asylum seekers, human rights defenders, and those acting in solidarity with migrants. 

We call for the decriminalisation of migration and facilitation, the protection of the right to seek asylum, and the reallocation of EU funding towards care and protection needs of migrants rather than law enforcement, detention centres, and surveillance.