‘Real migrant smugglers don’t board the boats’

“We must fight against migrant smugglers,” Gerald Darmanin, France’s interior minister, repeatedly emphasizes. The new French immigration law, passed on January 26, has strengthened criminal penalties against smugglers, increasing prison sentences from 5 to 15 years.

In the United Kingdom, the new Labour government plans to create an “elite” force to combat smugglers, with Prime Minister Keir Starmer comparing them to terrorists in a May interview with the tabloid The Sun. The European Union shares a similar stance, as Commissioner for Home Affairs Ylva Johansson considers the fight against smugglers “fundamental.”

European states use this rhetoric to show they are combating “illegal immigration”, but according to some NGOs, it is a catch-all term that fails to distinguish between boat pilots and international traffickers.

During a press conference last month, Bram Frouws, director of the Mixed Migration Center — a research center on migration affiliated with the Danish Refugee Council — lamented the lack of “nuance” surrounding the notion of smuggling. InfoMigrants spoke with him.

Why do you say the notion of migrant smuggling is distorted?

Bram Frouws: One of the things we constantly hear in European policymaker discourse is the idea that smugglers encourage people to embark on their migratory journey to Europe. However, when we survey thousands of migrants and refugees around the world about the factors behind their decision to migrate, smugglers usually rank only seventh or eighth. It’s primarily friends or family who influence the decision to migrate, not smugglers.

Smugglers are also held responsible for all kinds of abuses. What we find is that in some contexts, they are responsible, but in others, it’s more likely to be police officers, border guards, local communities, or criminal gangs who commit violence against migrants during their journeys. The image of smugglers mistreating migrants helps justify a strong criminal approach by European states.

This lack of nuance is also evident in the conflation between migrant smuggling and human trafficking. We often see policymakers deliberately using the term trafficking when they are actually talking about smuggling. While the lines between these two worlds are sometimes blurred — as in Libya, where some migrants assisted by smugglers find themselves in exploitative situations resembling human trafficking — they are two distinct phenomena. For destination states, deliberately equating smugglers with human traffickers justifies a security-oriented approach to illegal immigration.

Do you think this is a way to avoid accusations of mistreatment of migrants by law enforcement?

Perhaps it’s a way to hide the fact that migrant smuggling cannot exist or thrive without the involvement of officials. Someone has to look the other way, facilitate border crossings or help provide identity documents to travelers.

In Niger, entire cities like Agadez have developed through the transit of migrants to Libya or Algeria, and smuggling was considered a legitimate profession. How do you explain it?

In places like Agadez, an entire economic industry has been built around migration, from the desert pickup driver to the hotel manager. There’s a whole business surrounding it, generating income for many local residents. When you crack down on this activity, you crack down on the livelihoods of many people, not to mention that many migrants risk getting stuck, penniless, in Agadez.

Of course, destination countries have a different perspective because they don’t want irregular immigrants arriving, which explains their different approach.

An increasing number of laws in Italy, Greece, or the United Kingdom criminalize boat pilots who cross the Mediterranean or the English Channel with migrants on board. What do you make of it?

This is not the right approach because they are not the real smugglers. Real smugglers don’t board the boats; they’d be crazy to risk their lives and face arrest upon arrival. Most of them are migrants who have negotiated a free passage in exchange for steering the boat, often because they have sea experience or are former fishermen.

In general, we observe a lot of effort directed at low-level smugglers like pickup drivers in Agadez. I think we should focus instead on the kingpins who make a lot of money from migrant smuggling and are also responsible for many tragic events.

Also watch: Video: How social media aids human trafficking and smuggling