Rethinking migrant smuggling: Narratives, perceptions and policies across routes

Session Submission Type: Pre-arranged Panel

Abstract

Since the surge in migratory flows from 2014 onwards, the so-called refugee crisis and EU migration regime in the Mediterranean has garnered significant global attention. This phenomenon symbolizes multidimensional crises and presents a complex political challenge for the EU border control. Thousands of people fleeing conflict, poverty, and instability from regions such as the Middle East, Sub-Saharan Africa, and South Asia continue to risk their lives on dangerous sea routes, despite stringent EU policies aimed at curbing migration. More recently, similar dynamics have emerged across the English Channel and the Atlantic route destined to Canary Islands, where increasing numbers of migrants undertake hazardous crossings, prompting intense political debates and restrictive policy responses.

Current policy frameworks largely emphasize migrant smuggling as the primary driver of unauthorized migration, often conflating it with human trafficking. High-profile political statements and legislative measures across the EU focus on dismantling smuggling networks, overlooking the broader root causes of migration, such as armed conflict, economic instability, and political oppression. However, evidence from different countries shows that increasingly restrictive policies as a result of misleading narratives on the role of migrant smugglers in migratory flows lead to the unintended consequence of strengthening rather than dismantling these networks. By diverting attention from the root causes of migration and disregarding migrant agency, these narratives not only oversimplify a complex, multifaceted phenomenon but also lead to overly simplistic policy responses with the result of producing more sophisticated and professional organisations.

This panel seeks to critically examine the diverse narratives surrounding migrant smuggling and their impact on policy-making, public perception, and migrant experiences. Scholars and practitioners, have been invited to contribute with papers that explore the multifaceted perceptions of migrant smuggling and their consequences for migration management, asylum processes, and border control practices.

Subtopic

• Topic 3: Crime Correlates / Immigration / Migration (Immigration, Crime and Citizenship WG)

Chairs

• Nicola Montagna, Middlesex University London

• Myrna Papadouka, Senior lecturer in Criminology, Middlesex University, London

• Giuseppe Serrantino, Middlesex University London

Individual Presentations

• Deception, Desperation & Drugs: How Young Albanian Males are Smuggled & Trafficked into the UK - Imranali Panjwani, Anglia Ruskin University

• The iatrogenesis effects of migration policies; from migrant smuggling to human trafficking: the Italy-Libya case - Giuseppe Serrantino, Middlesex University London; Myrna Papadouka, Senior lecturer in Criminology, Middlesex University, London; Nicola Montagna, Middlesex University London

• Sweet escapes and unscrupulous smuggling: Navigating criminalization on the Lebanon-Cyprus route - Nora Milch, University of Oslo

• Criminal synergies: Human smuggling and illicit organ removal on the Central Mediterranean route - Seán Columb, University of Liverpool

• Criminalising ‘boat pilots’: Comparative critical reflections from ethnographic research in the UK and Greece - Simone Schwab, University of Amsterdam; Victoria Taylor, University of Oxford