New legislation for the prevention and combating of migrant trafficking, today proposed the Commission. It’s so focused in the tightening of penalties as well as in forecast for the possibility of a ship sinking in international territorial waters. Also, the strengthening of the resources and capacities of the member states is underlined. As the Commission states, Member States should allocate sufficient resources to their national authorities to ensure the effective prevention, investigation and prosecution of traffickers.

In particular, the European Commission focuses on five objectives:

1. Effective prosecution of organized crime networks. A clearer definition of the offense of trafficking has been set to focus on activities that are motivated by financial or material gain or are highly likely to cause serious harm to an individual. Public solicitation to enter the EU without permission will also become a criminal offence. This covers migrant trafficking advertised through digital tools and social media.

2. Harmonized penalties reflecting the seriousness of the offence: Aggravated cases of offenses – causing the death of one or more people – will be punishable by a maximum prison term of at least 15 years, up from 8 years under current EU law.

3. Improving the scope of jurisdiction: Member States’ jurisdiction will also apply, for example, when vessels sink in international waters and people die. Member States’ jurisdiction also extends to other cases, including offenses committed on ships or aircraft registered in Member States and offenses committed by legal persons doing business in the EU. The aim is to specifically target criminal networks. Activities such as humanitarian aid by NGOs, the execution of a legal obligation to search and rescue, assistance by family members and migrants themselves should not be criminalized.

4. Strengthening Member States’ resources and capacities: Member States should allocate sufficient resources to their national authorities to ensure the effective prevention, investigation and prosecution of traffickers. Member States should also work to prevent migrant smuggling, through information and awareness campaigns, research and training programmes.

5. Improving data collection and reporting: Member States will be required to collect and report statistical data on an annual basis to improve the scale, identify cases and tackle migrant smuggling.

In addition, the Commission proposes a regulation to strengthen the role of Europol and the cooperation between the agencies in the fight against migrant smuggling and human trafficking. This builds on the already successful existing Europol Anti-Migrant Smuggling Centre, which has a track record of success with over 83 operational task forces and €1.2 billion in cash seized since its launch in 2016.

The role of the Center will now increase to a real European dimension in strategic areas:

1. Strengthen coordination at EU level: the European Center against Migrant Smuggling will be strengthened and supported by Member States, Eurojust, Frontex and the Commission. The Center will monitor trends in migrant smuggling and human trafficking, produce annual reports, strategic analyses, threat assessments and situation updates, as well as investigative and operational actions.

2. Interagency cooperation: the Center will be supported by the liaison officers of the Member States, as well as by the liaison officers of Eurojust and Frontex, who should be seconded to Europol.

3. Improving information sharing: Member States’ obligations to share information with Europol on migrant smuggling and human trafficking will be strengthened. Europol deployment can already take place in third countries. The new Center will identify cases of migrant smuggling that may require cooperation with non-EU countries, including by sharing personal data on a case-by-case basis.

4. Resource Enhancement: Member States should designate specialized services to combat migrant smuggling and human trafficking, link these services to the Secure Information Exchange Network (SIENA) implementation.

5. Stronger support for Europol through the deployment of staff: the regulation updates the existing legislation with the concepts of Europol’s task forces and operational support missions. These are advanced coordination and analytical, operational, technical and forensic support tools to Member States, which have already been successfully implemented by Europol. In addition, a back-up pool of national experts will be created, which can be made immediately available to Europol for deployment in the Member States.

To fulfill these objectives, the Commission also proposes to increase Europol’s financial and human resources.