Human smugglers or criminalised migrants? Securitarian bordering and the criminalisation of ‘captains’ in the Mediterranean

Smuggling industry plays a key role in the international migratory processes; it is a world-wide and often misunderstood phenomenon which operates in a multiplicity of spaces and at different stages: at the beginning of the ‘journey’ and along the route, when migrants need to rely on supporting networks to cross borders and continue their journey. This industry also operates in a concatenation of loops involving different actors, which include migrants who pilot the small boats transporting migrants across the sea. Although these migrants are not formally affiliated with the smuggling organizations, they find themselves unwittingly drawn into the activity, compelled to operate the boats ferrying migrants at sea and consequently facing criminalization processes. Focusing on the Eastern and Central Mediterranean Sea routes and drawing insights from 22 in-depth qualitative interviews with key informants based in Greece and Sicily, this paper seeks to enrich the existing body of knowledge concerning border securitization and the intersection of immigration control with criminal justice, often referred to as 'crimmigration'. The merging of criminal law and migration law prompts an inquiry into whether the prosecution of people who steer the boats carrying unauthorised migrants across the Mediterranean serves to combat human smuggling or rather as an avenue to criminalise migration itself. The article’s central argument posits that ‘captains’, instead of being integral members of organised human smuggling networks, represent only a small aspect of migratory dynamics. They are vulnerable targets whose criminalization is indicative of a wider process of securitization in border control.

This version of the article has been accepted for publication, after peer review (when applicable) and is subject to Springer Nature’s AM terms of use, but is not the Version of Record and does not reflect post-acceptance improvements, or any corrections. The Version of Record is available online at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s12117-024-09553-1

The submitted version paper had the name of the first author incorrectly put as Myrna (instead of MARIA EIRINI). The name was then corrected via the last pre-publication edits.