Since 2014, numerous people on the move have been accused of migrant smuggling in Italian courts for steering makeshift vessels or for assisting in navigation across the Mediterranean Sea. This is the case regardless of the fact that such behaviour was the result of coercion or threats. In this contribution, drawing upon extensive empirical research and following a socio-legal paradigm, I first explore the criminalization of people on the move in relation to migrant smuggling charges in the years following the so-called 2014–2015 refugee crisis and discuss the impact on their rights. Second, I tackle the issue from a policy perspective, considering three potential EU/national policy reforms and the ways in which they could successfully address an existing policy problem. Such reforms vary in scope, from a damage limitation logic to a fully fledged change of paradigm, and the three can be described as follows: alignment of EU and national frameworks with the United Nations Protocol against migrant smuggling; a more significant differentiation between migrant smuggling and the facilitation of undocumented migration; and an explicit exoneration from criminal liability for people on the move accused of migrant smuggling. This article presents innovative insights, providing on the one hand an up-to-date empirical understanding of this form of criminalization of people on the move and, on the other, extensive reflections on the way in which policy reforms could prevent it.

中文翻译：

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从被偷运移民到“涉嫌走私者”：意大利对流动人口进行刑事定罪的经验证据和政策观点

自2014年以来，许多流动人口因驾驶临时船只或协助穿越地中海航行而在意大利法庭被指控犯有偷渡移民罪。无论这种行为是胁迫或威胁的结果，情况都是如此。在本文中，我根据广泛的实证研究并遵循社会法律范式，首先探讨了在所谓的 2014-2015 年难民危机之后的几年里，与偷运移民指控有关的流动人口的刑事定罪，并讨论了其影响关于他们的权利。其次，我从政策角度解决这个问题，考虑了三个潜在的欧盟/国家政策改革以及它们成功解决现有政策问题的方式。此类改革的范围各不相同，从损害限制逻辑到彻底的范式变革，这三项改革可描述如下：欧盟和国家框架与联合国打击移民偷运议定书保持一致；偷运移民和为无证移民提供便利之间有更显着的区别；明确免除被指控偷运移民的流动人口的刑事责任。本文提出了创新的见解，一方面提供了对这种形式的流动人口犯罪化的最新实证理解，另一方面对政策改革如何防止这种形式进行了广泛的反思。