According to a 2023 report, as of February 2023, there were approximately 2,000 people detained in Greek prisons under migrant smuggling charges, 90% of whom were third-country nationals. A recent investigation revealed that there was early evidence that the nine Egyptian nationals who were arrested and charged with smuggling for the Pylos shipwreck were innocent; however, they still had to remain in prison for almost a year. How could we prevent injustices like this from happening again? European institutions claim that the answer to such tragedies is to fight migrant smuggling, but what would it practically take to make smuggling networks redundant? Lydia Emmanouilidou, an independent journalist, in the company of lawyers Natasha Dailiani and Ioanna Begiazi and of activist and search and rescuer Iasonas Apostolopoulos attempts to shed light on how dangerous, highly-politicised narratives around migrant smuggling often lead to the criminalisation of migration including people on the move and those in solidarity with them, at the same time that others are profiting from the perpetuation of this situation either politically or financially. 

The podcast episode “Smugglers or scapegoats?” was recorded on the sidelines of the Shipwrecked. Rethinking migration & asylum in Europe congress organised by the Heinrich Böll Foundation in Thessaloniki, Greece on 24-25 June 2024.