News Item

Discussing NGO humanitarian assistance to migrants and criminalisation

At the invitation of the European Commission, FRA contributed to NGO discussions on the criminalisation of humanitarian assistance to migrants.

The objective of the meeting was to better understand the magnitude of the problem, to collect data on existing cases at land borders, in transit and stay, as well as to explore related concerns in the context of search and rescue by non-state entities.

FRA gave a short presentation on its research in this domain.This included FRA’s (updated) compilation on NGO ships involved in search and rescue activities in the Mediterranean and legal proceedings against them.

The Commission also asked the Agency to continue to provide evidence and data on this matter. The meeting, convened by the Commission, took place in Brussels on 1 October.