Humanitarians or Smugglers? European Union border securitisation and the criminalisation of humanitarian aid and acts of solidarity with migrants

人道主义者还是走私者？

• 批准号: 2887250
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: University of Essex
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Studentship
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2023 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=studentship-2887250
• 关键词: Humanitarians; Smugglers; European; Union; border

This research will address the question of whether ambiguity around the domestic interpretationof the 2002 Facilitation Directive has promoted the criminalisation of solidarity with migrantsand refugees in the European Union (EU). This is an important issue which requires detailedacademic investigation. Across the EU, cases of human rights defenders (HRDs) (includinghumanitarian practitioners activists, or other civil society actors assisting migrants) facingcriminal charges and being detained are increasing alongside border securitisation measures.This apparent 'criminalisation of solidarity' with migrants has taken different forms acrossnational contexts and, in a sense, appears to be interrelated with the criminalisation of irregularmigration itself. Criminal cases against HRDs aiding migrants do not occur in isolation. EU Statesare increasingly utilising detention facilities to hold migrants while simultaneously decreasingthe resources invested in pro-active search and rescue (SAR). Despite growing scrutiny by theEuropean Court of Human Rights, the Human Rights Committee, and other human rightsmonitoring bodies (see Khlaifia and others v. Italy, 2016 for a statement against migrantdetention or A.S. and others v Italy, 2021 for a review of extraterritorial obligations), suchconcerns continue. Emblematic cases demonstrate the nefarious impact of these bordersecuritisation policies on the work of those aiding migrants. In 2015, Lisbeth Zornig, a DanishHRD was found guilty of human smuggling for driving a family of Syrian refugees across a bridgeto Sweden (Zornig, 2016). In France, farmer Cedric Herrou was charged in 2017 with 'facilitatingirregular entry' for hosting asylum seekers in his home, before being acquitted by a Court ofAppeals in 2020 (Amnesty International, 2020). In Hungary, the 'Stop Soros' law criminalisingassistance to asylum seekers was found by the European Court of Justice (ECJ) to be in breach ofEU law (see European Commission v Hungary, 2021). Along the contested Mediterranean routes,politicians and FRONTEX border management officials have labelled the presence of civil societySAR activities as a pull-factor for increased irregular migration and have conflated humanitarianrescue with human smuggling (Franko, 2021). In Greece, the impact of this highly politicisednarrative can be observed in the case against the members of Emergency Response CentreInternational (ERCI), who spent several months in pre-trial detention after being arrested in 2018on charges of human smuggling, espionage, money laundering, and membership of a criminalnetwork (OHCHR, 2021). Similar cases have also occurred in Italy, with the seizure of vesselsand arrests of crew members of the Iuventa in 2022 and the Sea Watch in 2019 (see ECCHR,2022 and HRW, 2019). To analyse and contextualise the criminalisation of solidarity, thisresearch project will consist of two distinct analytical phases and consider three case studycountries: France, Greece, Italy. The first phase consists of a doctrinal analysis contrastingdomestic legislation under which acts of solidarity with migrants are criminalised withinternational human rights obligations and other relevant international legal frameworks, suchas refugee law and international law of the sea. This will be followed by a second phase,consisting of qualitative key informant (KI) interviews with HRDs. The objective of the first phaseis to identify the uncertainty around the conflicting legal frameworks allowing States tocriminalise assistance to migrants. The second phase seeks to understand the consequences ofthis legal uncertainty on the ability of HRDs to conduct their work, highlighting any perceivedrisks and potential hidden deterrent effect.

这项研究将解决一个问题，即围绕2002年便利化指令的国内解释的模糊性是否促进了对欧洲联盟（欧盟）移民和难民团结的刑事定罪。这是一个重要的问题，需要详细的学术研究。在欧盟范围内，人权捍卫者（包括人道主义实践者、活动家或其他协助移民的民间社会行为者）面临刑事指控和被拘留的案件随着边境证券化措施的实施而不断增加。这种明显的“声援移民的刑事化”在各国背景下采取了不同的形式，在某种意义上，似乎与非法移民本身的刑事化相关。针对帮助移民的人权捍卫者的刑事案件并非孤立发生。欧盟国家越来越多地利用拘留设施来关押移民，同时减少了投入到积极搜救（SAR）的资源。尽管欧洲人权法院、人权事务委员会和其他人权监督机构的审查越来越严格（参见Khlaifia等人诉意大利，2016年关于反对移民拘留或A. S.和其他人诉意大利，2021年审查域外义务），但这种关切仍在继续。一些典型的案例表明，这些边境证券化政策对那些帮助移民的人的工作产生了邪恶的影响。2015年，丹麦人权捍卫者Lisbeth Zornig因驾驶一家叙利亚难民过桥前往瑞典而被判犯有人口走私罪（Zornig，2016）。在法国，农民Cedric Herrou于2017年被指控在家中接待寻求庇护者，并于2020年被上诉法院无罪释放（大赦国际，2020年）。在匈牙利，欧洲法院（European Court of Justice，ECJ）裁定将援助寻求庇护者定为刑事犯罪的“阻止索罗斯”法违反了欧盟法律（见欧盟委员会诉匈牙利，2021年）。沿着有争议的地中海路线，政治家和边境管理局官员将民间社会搜救活动的存在视为非正常移徙增加的拉动因素，并将人道主义救援与人口走私混为一谈（Franko，2021年）。在希腊，这种高度政治化的叙述的影响可以在针对国际应急中心（ERCI）成员的案件中观察到，他们在2018年因走私人口、间谍、洗钱和犯罪网络成员的指控被捕后被审前拘留了几个月（人权高专办，2021年）。类似的案件也发生在意大利，2022年Iuventa和2019年Sea Watch的船只被扣押和船员被逮捕（见ECHANISM，2022和HRW，2019）。为了分析团结的犯罪化并将其置于背景之中，本研究项目将包括两个不同的分析阶段，并考虑三个案例研究国家：法国，希腊，意大利。第一阶段包括理论分析，对比将声援移民行为定为刑事犯罪的国内立法与国际人权义务和其他相关国际法律的框架，如难民法和国际海洋法。随后将进行第二阶段，包括与人权捍卫者进行定性的关键知情人访谈。第一阶段的目标是确定围绕允许各国将援助移民定为刑事犯罪的相互冲突的法律的框架的不确定性。第二阶段试图了解这种法律的不确定性对人权捍卫者开展工作能力的影响，强调任何可感知的风险和潜在的潜在威慑作用。