Ms Hanne Juncher, Director of Security, Integrity and Rule of Law
I am delighted to welcome you all to the 3rd International Conference on Migrant Smuggling, organised by the Council of Europe Committee on Crime Problems, the CDPC, in cooperation with the Division on Migration and Refugees.
I would like to thank the CDPC President, Mr Fritz Zeder, and the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, Mr Michael O’Flaherty, for joining the opening of our conference.
You will remember that at the 2023 Summit in Reykjavik, the Council of Europe Heads of State and Government committed to “intensifying efforts to foster and improve international co-operation…”, “…while continuing to protect the victims and respect the human rights of migrants and refugees, as well as supporting frontline States”.
The CDPC has been working quite intensely on this file since then, and the details of that will be presented to you by the President. The outcome is that the Committee of Ministers have agreed to develop a Recommendation on deterring and fighting the smuggling of migrants through legal means and other actions, and they have tasked this to the CDPC, with a date of finalisation at the end of 2027.
The future Recommendation will tackle the criminal aspects of countering migrant smuggling while upholding human rights. Building on the UN Palermo Protocol, it will also take into consideration the outcomes of the negotiations on the EU Directive.
From the Council of Europe side, we see clearly the value of closing loopholes in national legislation and practices and agreeing on international standards to prevent and combat the smuggling of migrants as a criminal offence. And as a particularly exploitative, inhuman and ruthless criminal business.
In order to be able to respond more effectively to migrant smuggling, there is a need for effective and dissuasive penalties for offenders, a focus of investigative and prosecutorial efforts to target organised criminal groups, and the adoption of a follow-the-money approach. This will help to break the business model of migrant smuggling.
Both traditional and modernised investigative techniques are needed if states are to have a chance of keeping pace with the emerging modus operandi of criminal groups. These are increasingly digitalised, both in their organisation and on the financial side.
The work we are undertaking will ensure a human rights-based approach, which upholds the principle of non-refoulement, includes the prohibition of collective expulsions, and avoids criminalising humanitarian assistance. The guidance offered by the European Convention on Human Rights and the European Court of Human Rights’ evolving case-law will obviously be central as well.
Apart from setting out briefly the work we are about to start on countering migrant smuggling, I also take this opportunity to encourage further engagement with other Council of Europe Conventions relevant to addressing smuggling-related criminal offences.
I am thinking of the conventions on cybercrime, on trafficking in human beings and on money laundering and terrorist financing. Those Conventions are crucial instruments for addressing challenges in a coordinated and effective way.
I want to mention in particular the value for international cooperation in criminal matters of the Council of Europe Conventions on Extradition and on Mutual Legal Assistance.
I would encourage States that have not yet done so to sign the 3rd Additional Protocol to the MLA Convention, the Valletta Protocol. This text is also highly relevant in the fight against migrant smuggling.
Finally, I would like to thank our international and regional partners for their strong collaboration, particularly the UN - in the form of the UNODC and the UNHCR, and the EU and its agencies in the form of the FRA, EuroJust and Europol. We are very grateful for your collaboration and for your presence here today, and we are fully on board for continued coordination.
A warm welcome and thank you of course also to our member states representatives, and to our guests from the Southern Mediterranean region, and from civil society.
With this, I wish you an excellent conference, and I pass the floor to the President.