The detention of illegally or undocumented migrants has always been a method used at the borders of the Member States to prevent third-country nationals without a visa or residence permit from entering and remaining in the European area without administrative permission to do so. However, following the massive arrival of foreigners at European borders in the context of the so-called “refugee crisis”, such action has become a more frequent practice. Under the justification of public security and with the aim of preventing the entry of potential terrorists into the European Union (EU), the “Securitization” achieves its highest level through the “Criminalization of Migration”, in which the control of migratory flows are more than political issues, but an act to curb a crime, the migration, whose penalty is the detention. Such act demonstrates how the Administrative measures at EU borders are extremely connected to coercive ones, affecting not only migrants (Dublin Convention and Return Directive), but all those who are involved in the process, considered as facilitators of illegal immigration (Directive on Facilitation of Irregular Migration). The aim of this article is to analyse the Criminalization of Migration as a European response to the Refugee Crisis and to verify which should be the alternative measures to decriminalize migration at the borders of the European Union.
Keywords: Criminalisation, Migration, Crisis, Detention, EU Borders
Emellin de Oliveira (emellin.oliveira@hotmail.com)
NOVA University of Lisbon, Law School