SMUGGLING OF MIGRANTS BY SEA: EU LEGAL FRAMEWORK AND FUTURE PERSPECTIVE

By Matilde Ventrella The book focuses on smuggling of migrants by sea from Africa to Europe and on the scope of European Union (EU) legal framework on this crime.  The book argues that people smuggled by sea should be protected by EU law when they become victims of human trafficking or as potential victims of human trafficking.  For this purpose, the book analyses the Trafficking Directive and other EU laws on the protection of victims of human trafficking.  The book argues that although smuggling and trafficking are two separate crimes, they can overlap.  Consequently, the law on human trafficking can be extended to smuggled migrants when there is the overlapping.  The book highlights that when the category of smuggled people by sea cannot be included in the legal framework on human trafficking, other laws on migration should be applied rather than returning people to their countries of origin or of residence where they will face the same poor conditions they left and thus, they would