Lynn Ruane (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 4:

In page 8, line 13, after “intentionally” to insert “and for financial or material benefit”.

Amendments Nos. 4 and 5 were highlighted in the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission's recommendations on the Bill. Under the 2002 EU directive, the facilitator of entry and transit does not need to have obtained any financial benefit from the smuggling in order for it to be considered a crime. However, Article 6.1 of the protocol requires that the act be for financial gain or other material benefit. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime has gone further and stated that the financial and material benefit of the crime is a key component of the international definition. It notes that it was intended by the drafters to ensure that those who provided support for smuggled persons for humanitarian and family reasons were not prosecuted. Criminalising people-smuggling without requiring a financial or other material element to the crime may have the effect of criminalising a wider range of circumstances not intended under the protocol including, for example, people providing assistance on the basis of family or humanitarian grounds. Research by the European Union has found that those involved in providing assistance to irregular migrants report that they fear sanctions and can also experience intimidation by some national authorities when carrying out their work. This research is further corroborated by a report on The Journal by Gráinne Ní Aodha, which found that such a clause is scaring rescue ships in the Mediterranean, operated by Médecins Sans Frontières. This comes at a time when, as I said on earlier amendments, 1,300 people have lost their lives making the treacherous journey across the sea.I ask that this amendment be accepted to protect those vulnerable people and those who look to assist them for humanitarian reasons.