Press

Published on Europolitics, 19 December 2014

This week we celebrate International Migrants Day [18 December] and International Human Solidarity Day [20 December]. However, there exists a growing trend among EU member states that undermines this display of international unity: the criminalisation of those who express solidarity with migrants in need.

Solidarity is one of the indivisible, universal values on which the EU is based, yet the concept is often limited to solidarity of ‘burden-sharing’ of migration flows between EU member states or solidarity with third countries. The EU and its member states are global actors that provide aid and assistance to third countries to enable people in countries suffering from war, natural and humanitarian disasters to access basic services; but when it comes to people on our own territory without access to basic services, the same principle of solidarity seems to no longer apply.

To reduce irregular migration, many EU member states seek to create a set of living conditions so intolerable that it will compel undocumented migrants to leave their territory and deter others from arriving. The Platform for Cooperation on Undocumented Migrants (PICUM) has reported systematic exclusion of undocumented migrants from essential services, such as health care, shelter, food and clothing, and increasing attempts by member states to restrict civil society solidarity in these areas. Denied state funding for services provided to undocumented migrants, civil society organisations and professional service providers (eg health care professionals, lawyers) are also targeted by laws that criminalise solidarity and oblige them to denounce undocumented migrants to the authorities. In March this year, the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) highlighted how solidarity with undocumented migrants is criminalised and penalised in many EU member states and emphasised the urgent need for fundamental rights safeguards to protect non-profit humanitarian assistance in the region.

Dimitris Avramopoloulos, commissioner for migration, home affairs and citizenship, is in the process of preparing an EU plan on how to fight human trafficking and smuggling. This provides an opportunity for the EU to develop a more effective and rights-based approach that focuses on organised traffickers and smugglers rather than friends and families, service providers and NGOs struggling to provide undocumented migrants with basic standards of living. This is not a matter of undermining migration policy; it is a question of upholding dignity, equality and respect for human rights.

While the Facilitation Directive (2002/90/EC) regulates criminalisation of facilitating undocumented migrants’ entry and stay, it gives member states the choice to exempt humanitarian assistance from criminalisation, especially when it is not an activity for financial gain. Nonetheless, there is little clarity around what actions are punishable or not, encouraging the development of misguided laws and policies. As a result of targeting undocumented migrants, such policies encourage discrimination or racism, whether intentional or otherwise; for example, in the United Kingdom landlords are required to check the residence status of potential tenants, and face fines if found to be renting to undocumented migrants. Out of fear of being punished, some landlords reject any person that may be perceived to be a foreigner.

The Social Platform would like to see the facilitation directive revised to ensure that member states do not criminalise humanitarian assistance. The EU should also encourage its member states to follow the FRA’s recommendations to law enforcement officials on when undocumented migrants’ fundamental rights should be respected in terms of allowing them to access essential services without risking arrest.

This is a question about the type of Europe we want to create. This is about the right to act in solidarity with fellow people living in Europe, without being turned into an immigration control officer. The founding principle of solidarity, dignity and social rights must apply to all.