The overcriminalization of facilitation of illegal entry: The dangers of the symbolic application of criminal law to deter irregular migration in the New Plan for Immigration
This piece was contributed by Marta Minetti, PhD student at the Law School of Queen Mary University of London. It was originally published by the Refugee Law Initiative Blog on 6 May 2021.
Despite the fact that the overcriminalization of the foreigner is claimed to be essential to achieve the “fairness” paradigm advocated for in the Plan, it is clear that the drafters of the New Plan for Immigration base their claim on logically and factually faulty assumptions. Furthermore, the reforms proposed in the Plan and the toughening of the penal framework for the assistance of irregular migration are not and cannot be applied in the legal field, which suggests that the provisions advocated for in the Plan would fulfil a symbolic function, which makes their application unpredictable. This is in blatantly incompatible with the principle of foreseeability and of the law and of legal certainty: two constitutive pillars of the Rule of Law. [Read more here.]