What is the status of people who have been smuggled in respect of the Migrant Smuggling Protocol?
It must be stressed that the Migrant Smuggling Protocol is concerned with the smuggling of migrants, not migration itself. In this sense it is important to note that the Migrant Smuggling Protocol does not intend to criminalize family members or other groups who smuggle a person (or enable or facilitate their stay) for non-profit reasons. The Migrant Smuggling Protocol also in no way criminalizes the involvement of the migrants themselves for having being smuggled. Article 5 of the Protocol reads that ‘Migrants shall not become liable to criminal prosecution under this Protocol for the fact of having been the object of conduct set forth in Article 6 of this Protocol’. In other words, a person cannot be charged with the crime of migrant smuggling, only for having been smuggled. However, as Article 6(4), explains, this does not mean that they cannot be prosecuted for having smuggled others or for the commission of any other offences against domestic law.
