So much promise, so little delivery: evidence-based policy-making in the EU approach to migrant smuggling

ABSTRACT

The 2020 New Pact on Migration and Asylum confirmed the continuity of the EU and its Member States’ largely repressive approach to migrant smuggling. Over the last few years, evidence-based inputs coming from the local level – and particularly from actors responsible for the implementation of anti-smuggling measures – have led to the assessment and review of the related EU penal framework. Yet, notwithstanding the emergence of several critical elements, calling for a re-definition of such framework – such as migrants accused of being smugglers and the criminalisation of humanitarian actors –, policy outputs have not altered the existing legislation. By disclosing the interactions between policy-makers, in a bottom-up perspective, this article explores the role of evidence in the (failed) reform of the EU framework, with a view to contributing to a new institutionalist understanding of the EU politics of evidence-based migration policy-making.

KEYWORDS:

• Migrant smuggling
• European Union
• Facilitators Package
• evidence-based policy-making
• bottom-up migration policy

Acknowledgments

I wish to thank the editor and the two anonymous reviewers for their insightful comments and suggestions. I am also particularly grateful to Daniela Piana for her helpful and supportive feedbacks on a previous version of this article. Last but not least, a special thanks to the practitioners who agreed to be interviewed and invaluably contributed to my research by sharing their expertise and points of view.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Interviews

Interview #1. Lawyer, 26 September 2018 & 24 November 2020, phone

Interview #2. Member of the judiciary, 28 September 2018, in person

Interview #3. Senior law enforcement officer, 1 October 2018, in person

Interview #4. CSO officer, 4 October 2018, Skype

Interview #5. Member of the judiciary, 17 October 2018, informal conversation, in person

Interview #6. Lawyer, 17 October 2018, phone

Interview #7. UNODC officer, 15 March 2019, Skype

Interview #8. Governmental officer acting at EU level, 27 March 2019, phone

Interview #9. National Deputy Anti-Mafia Prosecutor, 17 April 2019, in person

Interview #10. Former leading official, Ministry of Interior – Department for Civic Liberties and Immigration, 17 April 2019, in person

Interview #11. UNODC officer, 25 April 2019, Skype

Interview #12. Italian MEP, 2 May 2019, Skype

Interview #13. Member of the judiciary, Ministry of Justice – Department for Justice Affairs, Directorate-General Criminal Justice, 14 May 2019, informal conversation, phone

Interview #14. CSO officer, 22 May 2019, Skype

Interview #15. Officer, European Commission, DG HOME, 28 May 2019, informal conversation, phone

Notes

1. Council’s dynamics, including – from a bottom-up perspective – the potential elaboration of the extensive evidence provided by law enforcement agencies, could still be very interesting and apt to disclose further dynamics of evidence-based policy-making. This could represent an interesting field for future research.

2. Where necessary, quotes were translated from Italian into English by the author.

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.