Title: Policing the mobility society: the effects of EU anti-migrant smuggling policies on humanitarianism

Authors: Sergio Carrera; Jennifer Allsopp; Lina Vosyliūtė

Addresses: CEPS, Place du Congrés 1, B-1000, Brussels, Belgium ' Migration Leadership Team, London International Development Centre, 36 Gordon Square, Camden Town, London WC1H 0PD, UK ' CEPS, Place du Congrés 1, B-1000, Brussels, Belgium

Abstract: This article examines the ways in which EU's political priority to counter migrant smuggling affect the provision of humanitarian assistance and access to rights to irregular immigrants and asylum seekers. It explores the effects of EU policies, laws and agencies' operations in anti-migrant smuggling actions, and their implementation in two EU member states - Italy and Greece in the context of the 'European refugee humanitarian crisis' during 2015-2017. It shows that the effects of EU and national policies criminalising the facilitation of entry and residence of irregular immigrants extend beyond cases where civil society actors have faced actual prosecutions and criminal convictions when assisting irregular immigrants and asylum seekers. We use the notion 'policing the mobility society' to capture wider punitive dynamics which affect the activities of civil society actors, especially those critically monitoring and politically mobilising for the rights of migrants.

Keywords: migration; borders; migrant smuggling; humanitarian assistance; search and rescue; SAR; civil society; EU; cross-border mobility; refugee crisis; human rights; criminalisation.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMBS.2018.093912

International Journal of Migration and Border Studies, 2018 Vol.4 No.3, pp.236 - 276

Received: 28 Sep 2017
Accepted: 30 Apr 2018
Published online: 08 Aug 2018 *

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