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The figures are related to offenders connected to the criminal offence of migrant smuggling as defined under Article 1 of the Directive 2002/90/EC. They are available at country level for European Union Member States, EFTA countries, and EU potential members.

The statistics include, from 2016 onwards:
Persons in the criminal justice system by legal status (suspected/convicted/imprisoned) and sex
Suspected by citizenship (reporting country/other EU country/non EU country)

Crimes are classified according to the Directive 2002/90/EC. Divergencies with the International Classification of Crime for Statistical Purposes (ICCS) are detailed in the metodological guide Monitoring EU crime policies using the International Classification of Crime for Statistical Purposes (ICCS).
Regions are classified by Nomenclature of territorial units for statistics (NUTS).
Legal status is classified according to United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime definitions.

Crime and criminal justice

CRIME DEFINITION

Migrant Smuggling crime definition is provided in the EU Directive 2002/90/EC as:
• ‘any person who intentionally assists a person who is not a national of a Member State to enter, or transit across, the territory of a Member State in breach of the laws of the State concerned on the entry or transit of aliens;
• any person who, for financial gain, intentionally assists a person who is not a national of a Member State to reside within the territory of a Member State in breach of the laws of the State concerned on the residence of aliens’.
As reported in the guidelines ‘Monitoring EU crime policies using the International Classification of Crime for Statistical Purposes (ICCS)’ , the definition in the EU Directive 2002/90/EC slightly differs from the ICCS definition of the crime:
• as for the facilitation of unauthorized entry or transit, the definition of smuggling of migrant offences (08051) in the ICCS requires the financial or material benefit element to be present in order to classify a crime as migrant smuggling, whereas according to Article 1(a) of Council Directive 2002/90 the facilitation of unauthorised entry and transit is punished also when not committed for a benefit.
• as for the facilitation of unauthorized residence, according to the ICCS the ‘organization or facilitating the unlawful stay of foreign citizens’ (without reference to any financial benefit) is taken into account under crime 08059 (other unlawful acts related to migration), however, the crime 08059 captures a broader set of data which are not strictly defined as migrant smuggling or the facilitation of irregular migration (e.g. unlawful entry/illegal border crossing; using a forged document to enter a State; unlawfully employing or housing a foreign citizen).

Information on the compliance with the definition of the two categories and reference to national legal provisions are provided in the table below.

Information or explanation about provided data or about missing data are provided below.

Facilitation of unauthorised entry or transit as defined in Directive 2002/90/EC

BG: Whoever takes across the border of the country individuals or groups of people without permit of the respective bodies of the authority or, though by a permit but not at the places determined for that purpose, shall be punished by improsonment of one to six years and a fine of five hunderd to twenty thousand levs. (2) The penalty shall be imprisonment of one to ten yaers, a fine of ten thousand to thirty tousand levs and a confiscation of a part or the whole property of the perpetrator if: 1. a person who has not accomplished 16 years of age has been taken across the border; 2. the transfer has taken place without the consent of the person; 3. the person transferred across the border is not a Bulgarian citizen; 4. motor, air or other vehicles has been used; 5. the transfer has been organised by a group or organisation; 6. the transfer was carried out in a way, which was dangerous to the life of the transferred persons. (3) The penalty shall be imprisonment of three to twelve years, a fine of ten thousand to thirty thousand levs and a confiscation of part or the entire property of the perpetrator, where the act was committed with the participation of an official, who took advantage of his official capacity. (4) In the case of para 2, item 4 the vehicle shall be seized in favour of the state if it has been owned by the perpetrator or was voluntarily provided to him.
CZ: TSK 634 (všechny § v jednom TSK)
HR: Article 326 of the Penal Code regulates with the same provision "Illegal entry, movement and residence in the Republic of Croatia, another EU Member State or signatory of the Schengen Agreement". Therefore, it is not possible to disaggregate statistical frequencies separately for "enter or transit" and for "residence". Moreover, perpetrator needs to enable or assist the illegal migrant for financial gain. One also has to have this in mind when consulting “3 - Other Crimes” worksheet.
CY: Provided data may include document falsification cases
NL: For 'Prosecuted' and 'Convicted': comply fully with definition
AT: § 120 FPG was implemented to fulfill the directive 2002/90/EC. It constitutes an administrative offence. No data are available.
PL: IT system operated by the National Prosecutor's Office does not contain data regarding geneder of the procesuted persons
PT: It is not possible to disaggregate the data for enter or transit from data for unauthorised residence. The legal type in portuguese legislation aggregates those three types of conducts.
RO: art.262, art,263 - Penal Code. Source: General Inspectorate of the Romanian Police.
CH: This year we have revised and adjusted the consistency of the FNIA articles with the definitions: we added Article 116 paragraph 1 c. We can't make the difference between facilitation of unauthorised entry, transit or residence. 

ME: Data is available for just total.

AL: Assistance for illegal crossing of the state borders

Facilitation of unauthorised residence as defined in Directive 2002/90/EC

BG: Whoever, with the purpose of obtaining for himself or for somebody else property benefit, illegally assists a foreigner to reside or move into the country contrary to the law, shall be punished by imprisonment of up to five years and a fine from three thousand to ten thousand levs. (2) The penalty shall be imprisonment of one to six years and a fine of five thousand to twenty thousand levs, where the act was:
1. committed by using a motor, air or other transportation vehicle;
2. organised by a group or an organisation;
3. committed in a life-threatening manner for the person;
4. committed with regard to a person under the age of 16;
5. committed with regard to more than one person. (3) In the cases of Para 2, Item 1, the vehicle shall be seized in favour of the state, if it was owned by the perpetrator or was voluntarily provided to him.

HR: Article 326 of the Penal Code regulates with the same provision "Illegal entry, movement and residence in the Republic of Croatia, another EU Member State or signatory of the Schengen Agreement". Therefore, it is not possible to disaggregate statistical frequencies separately for "enter or transit" and for "residence". Moreover, perpetrator needs to enable or assist the illegal migrant for financial gain. 
CY: Data is not available for faciliation of unauthorised residence; data is only available for facilitation of unauthorised entry or transit.
NL: For 'Prosecuted' and 'Convicted': comply fully with definition
AT: § 115 FPG was implemented to fulfill the directive 2002/90/EC.
PL: IT system operated by the national Prosecutor's Office does not contain data regarding geneder of the prosecuted persons
PT: It is not possible to disaggregate the data for enter or transit from data for unauthorised residence. The legal type in portuguese legislation aggregates those three types of conducts.
RO: art.264 - Penal Code. Source: General Inspectorate of the Romanian Police. The data could not be provided as requested because the Article 264 of the Romanian Criminal Code is not evidenced distinctly in the judicial statistical application of the Romanian Public Ministry. Source: Public Ministry. 

SI: Not a separate criminal offence. It is included in the criminal offence regarding Facilitation of unauthorised entry or transit.
CH: Since 2022 data we have revised and adjusted the consistency of the FNIA articles with the definitions: we added Article 116 paragraph 1 c. We can't make the difference between facilitation of unauthorised entry, transit or residence.

ME: Data is available for just total.
AL: Assistance for illegal crossing of borders.

COUNTING UNITS DEFINITION

"Suspected" means persons brought in formal contact with the police/criminal justice system, including suspected, arrested or cautioned for a crime.

Comments by countries on Suspects definition

BE: Registered in National General Database (Police)
DK: Number of arrests. One person can count for more than one.
MT: Art. 534A Chapter 9 Laws of Malta. Maltese Law distinguishes between suspect and accused. Article 534A of the Criminal Code under the title 'Of the rights of suspects and accused' , refers to suspect as being that person who from the time is made aware by the Executive Police that he is suspected of having committed an offence and to accused as the person charged or accused of having committed an offence until the conclusion of the criminal proceedings, including, where applicable, the passing of sentence and the determination of an appeal. The above also applies to the cases of migrant smuggling.
RO: Persons investigated in the files solved by the police / declined to the Prosecutor's Office. Source: General Inspectorate of the Romanian Police.
SI: Criminal code (KZ-1), Prohibited Crossing of State Border or Territory Article 308

SK: Art. 199 Act No 301/2005 Criminal Procedure
NO: Not all suspected included, only those seen as guilty by the prosecution after enden investigation, regardless of liabilty.
BA: Data refers to suspected, prosecuted and convicted persons under the Penal Code of Bosnia and Herzegovina: - Articles 186, 186a, 189 and 189a
ME: The data relates to Article 405 Criminal Code of Montenegro - Illegal crossing of the state border and smuggling of people.
AL: Suspected are suspected persons in commiting an offence, formal contact with police; not accused in criminal proccedings

“Convicted” means found guilty in court (legal body authorized to pronounce a conviction under national criminal law), whether or not the conviction was later upheld.

Comments by countries on Convicted definition

BG: Provided data are according to articles 280 and 281 of the CC. Data cover persons convicted with final decisions came into force during the calendar year. Provided data in the questionnaire are according to the Art. 280 - Refers to the persons who takes across the border individuals or groups of persons without permission of the competent authorities, or with permission but not through the points designated (only transfer across the state border, without facilitation of transit, residence etc.); and Art. 281, of the CC, which refers to persons, who unlawfully assist or facilitate foreigners to reside in the country or go across the country for benefits in violation of the law.
DK: Number of convictions. One person can count for more than one.
DE: Data on convicted persons are available in Criminal Court Conviction Statistics. This statistics only counts final court convictions.
FR: Convictions counted here are definitive.
HR: Criminal Procedure Act. This item refers to perpetrators for whom un-appealable conviction has been reached.
HU: Section 564 (1) of the Act XC of 2017 on Criminal Proceedings
MT: Art. 413(1) Chapter 9 of the Laws of Malta. The persons prosecuted in these cases were found guilty for smuggling and thus convicted. Article 413 (1) of the Criminal Code (Chapter 9) states that 'any judgment of the Court of Magistrates may be appealed against - (a) by the party convicted'
AT: only final convictions (after appeals)
PL: Adults convicted with valid verdict
SK: Art. 10 Act No 301/2005 Criminal Procsure
NO: Does not include persons sentensed to a fine or lesser sanctions.
CH: Foreign Nationals and Integration Act, FNIA. Article 116 paragraph 1 a, c and abis. Article 116 paragraph 1 a, c and abis in conjunction with paragraph 2 and 3. Only defintive convictions are counted.
BA: Data refers to suspected, prosecuted and convicted persons under the Penal Code of Bosnia and Herzegovina: - Articles 186, 186a, 189 and 189a
ME: The data relates to Article 405 Criminal Code of Montenegro - Illegal crossing of the state border and smuggling of people.

“Imprisoned” means convicted for crime and held in prison, penal institution or correctional institution; excluding people held for example pending investigation of immigration status or right to stay, and pre-conviction detention.

Comments by countries on Imprisoned definition

BG: Provided data are according to articles 280 and 281 of the CC.

HR: Criminal Procedure Act; Act on Execution of Imprisonment Penalty. The Prison Administration was not in position to deliver data on persons imprisoned for this item, because for the time being they cannot disaggregate data in the enough detailed manner.

IT: All prisoners are included, even those awaiting trial at first instance or not definitively convicted. Pre-conviction detention is not excluded
HU: The data was provided based on the definition, not based on legal provisions.
MT: Art. 337A Chapter 9 Laws of Malta. The persons convicted were effectively imprisoned and held in prison under the Correctional Services Agency
RO: Penal Code, the Code of Penal Procedure, Law no.254/2013 on the execution of punishments and custodial measures ordered by judicial bodies during the criminal process. Source: National Administration of Penitentiaries within the Ministry of Justice.
SI: Criminal code (KZ-1), Prohibited Crossing of State Border or Territory Article 308.
SK: Act. no 300/2005 Z.z. Criminal Code
NO: Not all persons held in prison during the year, but all new imprisonments (after a conviction) and transfers from pre-trial-detention to serving sentence, during the year (i.e. lacking those already in prison from the start of the year). (See 18.1 Source data).
CH: Foreign Nationals and Integration Act, FNIA. Article 116 paragraph 1 a, c and abis. Article 116 paragraph 1 a, c and abis in conjunction with paragraph 2 and 3.
BA: Data refers to suspected, prosecuted and convicted persons under the Penal Code of Bosnia and Herzegovina: - Articles 186, 186a, 189 and 189a
ME: The data relates to Article 405 Criminal Code of Montenegro - Illegal crossing of the state border and smuggling of people.

Suspected/Convicted/Imprisoned persons by sex

Data on suspected, convicted and imprisoned persons for migrant smuggling is collected on the total number of female and male persons. The categories ‘Other, unregistered, unknown’ is also provided in the data collection but is not disseminated. Due to this, the sum of males and females may differ from the total number of persons.

Suspected by Citizenship

Countries are requested to list all the countries of citizenship of the suspected smugglers (by crime (facilitation of unauthorised entry or transit, facilitation of unauthorised residence, unspecified crime)) based on information in their passport or in other identity documents as recorded by the police. Countries should provide the total number of suspected smugglers per country per year in absolute numbers (not percentages).  To avoid double counting, it is advisable to count only one citizenship per suspected smuggler. Data protection laws should be complied with. Stateless, Refugee, Unknown but in the EU, Unknown but outside the EU and Unknown categories are also available. Disseminated data are further aggregated in:

The sum of suspected smugglers belonging to the three disseminated categories of citizenship may differ from the total number of suspected smugglers due to unknown citizenship for some of them.

More details on methodological rules are available in explanatory text (metadata) Crime and Criminal Justice (crim) on section 10.6 Documentation on Methodology.

The statistical units are persons, depending on the type of statistics: suspected, convicted, imprisoned.

For administrative data, the statistical population for each statistic is the complete register (all the relevant records).
For people, all ages and nationalities are counted. For age threshold in each jurisdiction see Crime and Criminal Justice (crim) on section 3.6 Statistical population.

European Union Member States, EFTA, potential EU Members. Certain territories are excluded and more details are provided on 3.7 Reference area in Crime and criminal justice (crim) metadata.

The current tables are available from 2016 onwards.

Not applicable.

Absolute number.
Rate by 100.000 population size.
Population size defined as resident population January 1st according to Eurostat database population figures.

The standard reference period is the calendar year.

The Directive 2002/90/EC provide the definition of smuggling of migrants. Obligation for data collection “to include migrant smuggling data within the regular Eurostat collection of crimes” is provided in the EU Action Plan against migrant smuggling (2015 - 2020), and is renewed in the EU action plan against migrant smuggling (2021-2025) that states that “Member States should enhance the quality and availability of data that is provided to the statistical office of the European Union (Eurostat)”. 

Data are shared with DG HOME - Migration and Home Affairs

Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 on European statistics(recital 24 and Article 20(4)) of 11 March 2009 (OJ L 87, p. 164), stipulates the need to establish common principles and guidelines ensuring the confidentiality of data used for the production of European statistics and the access to those confidential data with due account for technical developments and the requirements of users in a democratic society.

Decisions regarding disclosure risk and the selection and implementation of disclosure control methods rest with the national data suppliers.

In general, data are released within 16 months after the reference year.

Release calendar - Eurostat (europa.eu)

In line with the Community legal framework and the European Statistics Code of Practice, Eurostat disseminates European statistics on Eurostat's website (see item 10 - 'Accessibility and clarity') respecting professional independence and in an objective, professional and transparent manner in which all users are treated equitably. The detailed arrangements are governed by the Eurostat protocol on impartial access to Eurostat data for users.

Annual.

Ad hoc news releases on-line.

Crime Publication section https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/crime/publications

Tables are available on-line in Eurostat webpage Crime Database and are updated annually.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Each country determines the data production and is responsible for its documentation. Data are produced by official authorities such as Police, Prosecution, Court Administration, Ministry of the Interior and Ministry of Justice. Each country determines which authority or statistical office should collect, check and send data and documentation.

EUROSTAT methodological guidance 2024 for more details on counting rules can be found at:
https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/product?code=KS-GQ-24-010

More details (as listed below) in methodological rules are available in metadata Crime and Criminal Justice (crim) 10.6 Documentation on methodology section:
-Stage of data collection of courts data for number of convicted
-Counting unit of courts data (convicted persons)
-Counting rules for persons when counting the number of persons in reference to an offence.

A paragraph in the document Monitoring EU crime policies using the International Classification of Crime for Statistical Purposes (ICCS) provides an insight on correspondance between the EU Directive and the ICCS classification.

None.

Data are provided to Eurostat by a contact designated by each country. Notably, this contact can be another authority than the national statistical office. Each country determine its own procedures for gathering data from several different authorities (see item 18.1 Source data). 

No assessment has been made.

The need to provide information on migrant smuggling in the European Union is based on the Directive 2002/90/EC. The renewed EU action plan against migrant smuggling (2021-2025) stressed that ‘To improve the knowledge base of its implementation, Member States should enhance the quality and availability of data that is provided to the statistical offices of the European Union (Eurostat)’.

No user satisfaction survey has been done.

Data is missing for some countries, for some years, in nearly all tables, for all types of statistics. The table below shows the number of countries for which data are disseminated for each indicator:

Principally, administrative crime statistics indicates the registration and handling of cases by authorities such as Police, Prosecution and Courts. Relative to the administrative data used, the accuracy is largely unknown.

Not applicable - data are from administrative records.

Data from administrative records are likely to contain some random errors (mistakes) as well as systematic errors (bias).

The data for the reference year Y are requested to be provided by the 15th September of year Y+1. After the validation checks have been applied to the data, the countries are consulted again to revise any inconsistencies or to provide additional reference metadata. 

Following data validation, the data are published on the Eurostat website, within 16 months of the reference year.

Comparability in crime statistics is affected by many factors, such as differences in:

Legal system and criminal justice system
Legislation, criminal law and legal definitions
Organisation and efficiency of police, prosecution, courts and prisons
Recording stage of police data (input, process or output data)
Recording system, reporting system, and production system
Relation between national crime definition and international statistical definition
Statistical unit and statistical population
Statistical definition, reference time, counting methods and calculation methods
Reporting rate for the crime

See the list of factors in 15.1. Changes in any of the factors can affect the comparability over time.

Coherence with ICCS080051 'Smuggling of migrants' crime collected through the UN-CTS Crime Trends Survey questionnaire is taken into account in the validation process.

The internal coherence of the data is checked with basic validation rules (see section 18.4. Data validation).
Figures for categories may not add up to the total, because information for some categories is unknown.

Not estimated.

To further specify the general Eurostat revision policy, the following revision policy has been established for the crime domain. Revisions to the data are possible at any time, but only based on new data received from national contact.

The revision practice effectively corresponds to the revision practice of the domain listed under sub concept 17.1 (data revision – policy). All reported errors (once validated) result in corrections of the disseminated data. Reported errors are corrected in the disseminated data as soon as the correct data have been validated.
Data are only published once they are deemed to be sufficiently complete for all data providers. Whenever new data are provided and validated, the already disseminated data are updated. Aggregates and components are revised at the same time.

There are several different data producing sources, such as Police, Prosecution, Courts, Ministry of the Interior and Ministry of Justice. The source data type is records in administrative registers.

As for suspects, the main data source, reference to national legal provisions, and information on data provided or missing data are provided in the table below:

As for convicted, the main data source, reference to national legal provisions, and information on data provided or missing data are provided in the table below:

As for imprisoned, the main data source, reference to national legal provisions, and information on data provided or missing data are provided in the table below:

Annual.

Eurostat forward a questionnaire to EU Member States, EFTA countries and EU potential members. In each country, figures from different authorities are collected into one file. The files are sent to Eurostat by a common procedure, the Electronic Data File Administration and Management Information System (EDAMIS).

The data are checked for completeness, internal consistency, and consistency over time and coherence with other relevant data sources.

For internal consistency the following are checked:
- The sum of the subtotals (e.g. male, female, other, unknown) to the total
- The total of each legal status (victims, suspected, prosecuted, convicted) in the different breakdowns
- Large change from previous to current reference year
- Consistency between the different legal status (suspected, prosecuted, convicted) by using the attrition rate

- Consistency between the the number of suspected and the number of offences

- Total empty tables, use of 0 and notes
- Tables completeness compared with previous year
- Completeness of the metadata

Any issue revealed by the checking is pointed out to the national contact, by email. The national contact may either confirm the validity of data or send new data.

No editing, estimation, imputation, weighting, seasonal adjustment, or other statistical modifications are carried out by Eurostat.

EU totals are not published in the dataset.

No adjustments are made.

None.