ABSTRACT
This chapter analyses the EU Action Plan 2021–2025 to combat migrant smuggling, proposing a reinforced framework at the EU level and a set of actions in different areas to combat the phenomenon, strengthening the European approach to migration management as presented in the Pact on Migration and Asylum, in cooperation with countries of origin and transit. In particular, the Plan promotes a “renewed” response to migrant smuggling with respect to the 2015–2020 Plan to address the persistent challenges as well as those emerging in the current landscape, such as digital smuggling, financial investigations, asset recovery, document fraud, and the instrumentalisation of migration by State actors for political ends to destabilise the European Union and its member States (i.e., organised State-sponsored smuggling of migrants into the EU from Iraq, the Republic of the Congo, Cameroon, Syria). In this context, the added value of the Plan lies in the provision of concrete measures necessary to combat and prevent smuggling and to ensure that the fundamental rights of migrants, especially those in vulnerable situations such as children, unaccompanied minors, and women, are fully protected.
