Hein de Haas discusses the dangers of stricter border controls in a series of blog posts. In the first post, Hein states that smuggling is a reaction to border controls rather than a cause of migration. He argues that further toughening of border controls will force migrants and refugees to take more risks and only increase their reliance on smugglers.
In a subsequent post, Hein discusses the bitter irony of the decision to grant post mortem Italian citizenship to those who died in the Lampedusa tragedy, while the survivors will likely be charged with illegal migration. Hein argues that the criminalisation of migration dangerous and reinforces that it may only make matters worse by increasing migrants' dependence on smugglers.
- Read 'Smuggling is a reaction to border controls, not the cause of migration'
- This post is now available to read via PressEurop in ten languages
- Read the second post 'Lampedusa: Only the dead can stay'