Solomon Pili Kaaho’ohalahala shares perspectives with IPS. Credit: Joyce Chimbi/IPS
BUSAN, Korea, Apr 30 2025 (IPS) – Indigenous people play a vital role in ocean protection due to their deep-rooted connection to the marine environment and their traditional knowledge of sustainable resource management. They often possess centuries-old practices and stewardship ethics that prioritize ecological balance and community well-being.
Recognizing and supporting indigenous leadership in ocean conservation is crucial for building a more sustainable future for the world’s oceans. Solomon Pili Kaho’ohalahala from the Maui Nui Makai Network spoke to IPS during the 10th Our Ocean Conference in Busan, Korea.
“My name is Solomon Pili Kaho’ohalahala. I am from the small island of Lanai in Hawaii. I’m an eighth-generation Lanai. As an indigenous Hawaiian, one thing that is really clear is that I grew up with the traditional practices of our kupuna, our ancestors, and our elders. These practices brought us into a very close relationship with the land and sea, and we learned to strike a balance between what we gather from the land and sea for our daily sustenance and what is left behind for future generations.
“This practice is very mindful of spawning seasons for our land and sea resources, whether they be plants, animals, or fish, and respects those seasons so that we leave them alone when they’re at their highest ability to perpetuate their species. By contrast, now that we are illegally a part of the United States, they have put their management systems and laws in place, and their systems are contrary to those of traditional Hawaiian practices.
“And what we find is that under their management, the resources are in decline. So, the number of fish, which I previously described as plentiful, is now declining. The seaweed, which is also a type of food for us, is declining.
“So, what we have asked the government, the state of Hawaii, is to allow the indigenous people to begin their own traditional management practices to help restore. The government has such a hard time allowing the indigenous people to be the caretakers and managers, even though we have thousands and thousands of years of experience, but the government wants to do it alone and push us aside. By excluding indigenous people, the government is failing.
“We therefore decided that we don’t need the government’s permission to be the caretakers of our resources. So, we created our own community of managers of our resource, and these are cultural people. We are applying our cultural practice from land and into sea and ensuring that all of these natural resources on land and underwater are cared for in their proper manner, and this ensures that the cycle of replenishment is not broken.
“And what we’ve been able to demonstrate is that we are finding success, but the government does not acknowledge this success. So, we are still not recognized as the people that should be the caretakers of these systems, because the experience is an indigenous one and this is a problem.
“We are hoping for opportunities where the government will allow the community to be the caretakers. It’s slow in coming, and we don’t have much time to implement this, because if we don’t, then we may lose our resources forever, and that would be a sad day. So, we are doing our part with our own initiatives, but we are also pushing the government to consider these traditional practices of the indigenous people as management practices in islands in the largest ocean on the planet.
“And it’s very slow, but we are not stopping. We are moving ahead. Now, we want to take that experience and elevate this conversation in the international arena, because now we are talking about not just an island where I live on, but I’m talking about the entire ocean in which I live in.
“And if the international bodies consider making rules and regulations to manage that large ocean without the indigenous people, then we would be creating something not any different from what I’ve been living with, where state governments try to manage and control without indigenous input. At the international level, we are asking, are you going to manage and control the large oceans of the earth without the indigenous people? It cannot be.”
Health workers getting ready for duty at an mpox treatment center in Lwiro in the Democratic Republic of Congo’, a hotspot for the pandemic that CD Africa handled in 2024. Credit: WHO
NAIROBI, Apr 24 2025 (IPS) – The majority of African countries are yet to commit 15 percent of their GDP to funding the health sector, despite the growing disease burden weighing down the continent and two decades after the coming into force of the Abuja declaration on health sector funding.
Only a few countries, including Rwanda, Botswana, and Cabo Verde, have consistently met the 15 percent target, with some countries allocating less than 10 percent of their budget to the crucial sector.
Under the Abuja Declaration of 2001, African Union (AU) member states made a commitment to end the continent’s health financing crisis, pledging to allocate at least 15 percent of national budgets to the sector. However, more than two decades later, only three countries—Rwanda, Botswana, and Cabo Verde—have consistently met or exceeded this target (WHO, 2023). In contrast, over 30 AU member states remain well below the 10 percent benchmark, with some allocating as little as 5–7 percent of their national budgets to health.
Countries including Nigeria, Chad, and the Central African Republic are allocating as little as 5–7 percent to the sector, thanks to a myriad of political and economic challenges, including a high debt burden and narrow tax base, according to Director General of Africa Centres for Disease Control (Africa CDC), Dr. Jean Kaseya.
Competing demands for security and infrastructure financing and limited coordination between ministries of health and finance, plus the fact that the COVID-19 pandemic “hit national budgets hard,” worsened by global economic instability, haven’t helped matters, he said, while commenting on the latest annual report of the continental health body and the 2025 concept paper on Africa’s Health Financing in a New Era, both released in April.
Wivine M’puranyi, a 30-year-old mother of six from the village of Karanda in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s South Kivu, reflects on the distressing days when her two daughters were diagnosed with mpox, one of the pandemics that hit Africa in 2024. Credit: WHO
“It also exposes just how costly underinvesting in health can be. The real story here is political will, where leaders prioritize health, and budgets follow,” he noted.
The report finds that only 16-29 percent of African countries currently have updated versions of the National Health Development Plan (NHDP) supported by a National Health Financing Plan (NHFP), the two documents being critical in driving internal resource mobilization.
“Updating National Health Development Plans (NHDPs) and National Health Financing Plans (NHFPs) is not just a matter of paperwork—it’s a heavy lift. Countries need robust data, skilled teams, funding, and strong inter-ministerial coordination,” he said.
Low funding has a consequence: it has led to many health departments being understaffed and overstretched, partly because some governments ‘deprioritize’ updating the two documents because they fear the plans won’t be implemented or be funded. “But without current, credible plans, it’s nearly impossible to make a case for more domestic or external investment. These documents are not bureaucratic checkboxes—they’re investment blueprints,” the DG told IPS.
He noted that countries that have updated and actively used their NHDPs and NHFPs have seen tangible benefits, one such country being Burkina Faso, where an updated NHFP had helped streamline funding and implementation for free healthcare policy.
In Senegal, incorporating macroeconomic forecasting into the NHFP improved budget predictability and donor alignment. “These tools are powerful when they are costly, realistic, and regularly monitored. But let’s be clear; plans must be funded and used—not just filed away—to make a real difference,” Kaseya added.
According to the documents, Africa continues to carry a disproportionate share of the global disease burden—25 percent—but with only 3 percent of the global health workforce, resulting in a “dangerously overstretched workforce,” according to the documents. Should this shortage be prioritized over all other health needs and deficiencies, or what should be addressed first?
The shortage of health workers remains a fundamental challenge, with Africa carrying 25 percent of the global disease burden but a disproportionate 3 percent of the global health workforce—a challenge that cannot be addressed “in isolation.”
Likobiso Posholi, 35, from Ha Sechele village in Mohale’s Hoek in Lesotho, recovering from a recent cesarean section. Many countries in Africa are yet to commit 15 percent of the national budgets so that women like Posholi can access affordable maternity services. Credit: WHO
However, recruiting en masse without sustainable financing or strategic deployment can strain the system, and in some countries, trained professionals remain unemployed due to fiscal constraints or wage bill ceilings. “Kenya, for example, is piloting co-financing mechanisms between national and local governments to overcome this. The key is to tackle workforce gaps through integrated, context-specific reforms that link financing, recruitment, and health system needs,” Kaseya said.
The Africa CDC has drafted a three-pronged strategy and placed it at the forefront of a health financing revolution that could potentially represent a paradigm shift from dependency to self-determination. Some aspects of the strategy can be implemented immediately without being subjected to a lot of bureaucracy in view of the emergency brought about by cuts in Overseas Development Assistance (ODA), he added.
Reductions in ODA went down by 70 percent between 2021 and 2025, exposing health systems to deep-rooted structural vulnerabilities and placing immense pressure on Africa’s already fragile health systems, with overseas financing being seen as the backbone of critical health programmes.
These include pandemic preparedness, maternal and child health services, and disease control initiatives, all of which are at risk, threatening Sustainable Development Goal 3 and Universal Health Coverage.
“Some components of our strategy can be rapidly deployed. Health taxes on products like tobacco, sugar, and alcohol are politically sensitive but technically straightforward and yield dual benefits, generating revenue and promoting healthier populations. Strengthening health financing units within ministries is a high-impact, low-cost intervention that can dramatically improve budget execution and efficiency,” Kaseya suggested.
Likewise, deploying digital tools—such as real-time dashboards to track financing flows—can happen quickly and with limited bureaucracy. Countries like Benin, South Africa, and Ethiopia are already implementing such reforms with measurable progress.
He pitched that digitization of the health sector is no longer a luxury, as it is foundational to the much-needed resilient, transparent, and efficient health systems.
On the other hand, the platforms improve decision-making, enable better resource tracking, and enhance service delivery. However, fragmentation of digital solutions remains a challenge, with many platforms developed in ‘silos,’ often “donor-driven and poorly integrated,” he commented.
He singled out Ghana, which offered a strong example of progress, having developed a national platform that integrates health and financing data. “The true value of digitization is realized when countries lead the process, ensure interoperability, and embed digital solutions into broader system reforms,” Kaseya said.
On the positive side, CDC Africa for the first time led an emergency response, putting in place a Joint Continental Incidence Management Support Team (IMST) co-led with the World Health Organization and bringing together over 28 partners to collaborate on the Mpox response. This work was done under the “One team with a One unified plan, One budget, and One monitoring framework.”
“This is a historic first that marked a significant milestone in Africa’s leadership of public health emergencies of continental significance,” the report observed.
It further supported national responses to “multiple major public health emergencies,” including the mpox outbreak in 20 AU member states and the Marburg virus disease outbreak in Rwanda. This was in declaring the former a Public Health Emergency of Continental Security (PHECS) on August 13, 2024, in consultation with the affected countries and relevant stakeholders.
Also on the positive side, the continental health body was advancing a comprehensive three-pillar strategy centered on domestic resource mobilization, innovative financing, and blended finance.
World Creativity & Innovation Day Statement by Education Cannot Wait Director Yasmine Sherif
The ruins of a residential building in northern Gaza following an Israeli airstrike. Credit: UNICEF/Mohammed Nateel
NEW YORK, Apr 21 2025 – Creativity and innovation are essential to finding extraordinary solutions to abnormal problems. Now more than ever we must continue finding creative solutions to protect the world’s most vulnerable children from the excruciating pain of war, dispossession and destruction of their last hope: a quality education. The current humanitarian and development funding levels are falling. However, with creativity we can prevent further deterioration and instead turn towards an upward direction.
With bold, innovative action and connected problem-solving in a world of abundance we can better connect the dots between donors, governments, the private sector, UN agencies, civil society and other key partners to unleash our wealth of humanity towards those in unwanted scarcity: the world’s most vulnerable children whose only wealth is their hope for a quality education.
In 1543, Nicolaus Copernicus published his groundbreaking theory, “On the Revolutions of Heavenly Spheres.” His new ideas sparked a revolution by placing the Sun – rather than the Earth – at the centre of our solar system.
We need a Copernican Revolution of our own today – one guided by data, evidence, creativity and innovation, and the highest of all values: empathy. We can then deliver on the reforms envisioned in the UN80 Initiative, Pact for the Future and other initiatives designed to reimagine the delivery of humanitarian aid. In short, we must place children at the center of our universe and use education as our single most powerful instrument to tap their vast potential. Only then can their hope turn into reality.
Education Cannot Wait (ECW), the global fund for education in emergencies and protracted crises in the United Nations, is embracing evidence-driven reforms to streamline our operations and ensure every donor dollar creates a positive impact on the lives of children caught on the frontlines of conflict, climate change and forced displacement. With the lowest overhead costs, we are lean, agile and fast-acting, and we place children and adolescents in emergencies and protracted crises at the center of everything we do.
Our work – and our value proposition – is driven by data and evidence to achieve optimal results and impact. Let’s start with the growing needs. When ECW became operational in 2017, it was estimated that approximately 75 million crisis-affected children needed education support. Today, with violent conflicts in places like the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Gaza, Sudan and Ukraine, horrific shocks from climate change-related natural disasters, and a unprecedented rise in human displacement and migration, that number has skyrocketed to nearly a quarter of a billion – 234 million to be precise.
Data also tell us that a lack of quality education – especially across the Global South – is costing us trillions of dollars in lost opportunities every year. “Limited educational opportunities and barriers for girls cost the world economy between US$15 trillion and US$30 trillion. In nine countries, the cost of out-of-school children was estimated to be greater than the value of an entire year of GDP growth,” according to the World Bank.
Additionally, investing US$1 in early childhood education can generate returns as high as US$17 for the most disadvantaged children worldwide. Imagine the impact every dollar could have in creating a million more opportunities for the world’s most vulnerable children.
Given the current funding environment, we must embrace our creative problem-solving and solutions orientation. Besides revisiting budgets and finding human-centred solutions to those left furthest behind, another creative approach toward resource mobilization comes from impact investments. Through partnerships with visionary businesses like Swiss Cantonal Banks and Tribe Impact Capital LLP, Education Cannot Wait is able to connect private capital with public goods as a driving force toward long-term economic growth, resilience and security. With the ability to crowd-in resources and expertise, pool funds and broker partnerships, ECW is igniting global reform to deliver on a development sector, such as education, in humanitarian crises with coordination, speed and impact.
Together with our strategic donor partners, ECW is reimagining the way we deliver life-saving education supports on the frontlines of the world’s most severe humanitarian crises. One thing is certain, by following Copernicus’ evidence-based vision – and placing children at the center of our collective efforts – we can make the seemingly impossible possible – provided that we all do our part keeping our eyes on what really matters: those left furthest behind and every child’s right to a quality education – especially when this is their very last hope. By transforming their lives through a quality education, we empower them to arise from their suffering and become creative and innovative contributors to their society and, indeed, all of humanity.
Titon Mitra is Resident Representative, UNDP Myanmar
The 7.7 magnitude earthquake, which struck central Myanmar, has created an even deeper crisis for a country and a people who were already suffering from conflict and displacement. Credit: UNDP Myanmar/Su Sandi Htein Win
NAYPYIDAW, Myanmar, Apr 21 2025 (IPS) – As I walked through the streets of Sagaing and Mandalay, the scenes unfolding in the wake of the 7.7 earthquake were hard to comprehend.
Tall buildings and hundreds of homes are now lying in rubble. Of those that are still standing, many are lurching at dangerous angles, defying gravity for now, but could collapse at any moment.
In Sagaing, 80 percent of buildings have been destroyed and entire sections of one of the main bridges over the Irrawaddy River have snapped off and sunk into the water, like a child’s broken toy. Roads have deep fissures that could swallow cars.
Everywhere you look, families are living on the streets in temperatures that can reach 40°C. Even if their homes are still standing, they are fearful to enter them.
Disease always follows disaster, and in Sagaing and Mandalay, many people are forced to defecate in open spaces and clean water is scarce. Reports of cholera, hepatitis, and typhoid are surfacing, even among aid workers.
Hospitals, already understaffed due to ongoing civil unrest, are overwhelmed and urgently need critical medical supplies like trauma kits and antiseptics. Buildings are unsafe and patients are now housed in carparks.
Local markets are mostly closed and transport links relying on useable roads and bridges are severely affected. If there is food available, it’s extremely expensive, and jobs and incomes have been disrupted so many people can’t even buy food.
The human toll is heart breaking and will likely get worse. One week on, the focus is now grimly shifting from rescue to recovery, as the chances of finding survivors fast dwindles. It’s expected that the death toll, now at around 3,000, will increase significantly.
This is an absolutely devastating and ever deeper crisis for a country and a people who were already suffering from conflict and displacement. Myanmar’s devastated economy, still reeling from the shocks of COVID-19, last year’s typhoons, and years of conflict, has produced hyperinflation, high unemployment, and crushing levels of poverty, particularly amongst children.
The poor and vulnerable simply have no further to fall.
A UNDP report has found that 75 percent of the population or over 40 million people are living near to, or well below, subsistence levels. Myanmar’s middle class has shrunk by an astounding 50 percent in recent years. Even life’s basics are unattainable luxuries for most.
In Sagaing, 80 percent of buildings have been destroyed, including one of the main bridges across the Irrawaddy River. Credit: UNDP Myanmar/Su Sandi Htein Win
The sheer scale of the disaster, compounding the pre-existing deep vulnerability, requires a massive and sustained international response.
As in all emergencies, over the first few weeks or month, urgent needs in health, water and sanitation, food, and shelter must be met. But this is a crisis where many of those affected are in urban areas or where farming was taking place, even if at a very basic level.
Areas where it is important to quickly transition from emergency relief to economic and social service support and reconstruction. So, provision of medicines and medical supplies should be quickly followed by making hospitals and health clinics functional.
Distributing water must quickly shift to rehabilitating water supply infrastructure. General food distributions need to transition to targeted supplementary feeding and creation of jobs, incomes, and functioning of markets.
Temporary shelter should be replaced with repair of housing. Most of all, dignity and agency must be preserved – a helping hand up is so much better than perpetual handouts.
UNDP’s focus is twofold—to provide for immediate essential needs while also looking to the future. Despite extensive damage to infrastructure, UNDP teams are distributing shelter materials, clean water, and solar kits to some 500,000 people.
We are providing cash for work to the poor and working with the private sector to remove debris safely and recycle what they can. We are providing equipment and expertise to workers handling hazardous materials like asbestos without proper protection.
We are providing temporary shelters, assessing damaged homes and working with local tradespeople to effect repairs.
But we are also laying the groundwork for the longer term—restarting small businesses, repairing vital public service infrastructure and training young people so that they can get jobs in the huge amount of reconstruction that will be required.
The other thing I noticed walking around Sagaing and Mandalay were the huge, gilded ancient pagodas and statues of Buddha now also in rubble. Not so long ago, they stood grand and seemingly removed from the chaos engulfing the country. They stood as symbols of detachment and compassion.
One of the key tenets of Buddhism is the understanding that life is connected to suffering (dukkha). But how much more can the people of Myanmar suffer? And how much more can those who are suffering depend on the compassion of the ordinary people and first responders who are trying their best to ease the suffering?
Just like the pagodas and statues, resilience of the people of Myanmar cannot be assumed or a given. They desperately need the help of the international community to cope with the compounding crises. The cameras that are now focused on Myanmar will soon turn away. But one hopes that Myanmar will not continue to be the neglected crisis it is.
The international community must come together and meet the resolve and courage of Myanmar and its people, and to imagine a better future. We can at least try to make sure that when disaster strikes again, its blow will not cut so deep.
The long road to recovery will require a concerted effort to rebuild infrastructure, restore livelihoods, and address the many existing needs of the vulnerable. The world’s attention, and sustained commitment, will be crucial in helping the people of Myanmar navigate this devastating chapter.
UNDP’s response to the earthquake in Myanmar, and its work in other crisis contexts, is made possible by the support of core funding partners.
Commemorating Genocide Prevention and Awareness Month
NEW YORK, Apr 15 2025 (IPS) – April marks Genocide Prevention and Awareness Month, a time to reflect on the history, causes and victims of past genocides and to mobilize the necessary resolve to confront risks facing populations around the world today who face the threat of genocide and other mass atrocity crimes not for anything they have done, but for who they are.
As we solemnly observe this month of commemoration, we also reflect on the 20th anniversary of the UN General Assembly’s unanimous adoption of the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) principle – a concept which emerged in particular response to the international community’s failure to prevent the atrocity crimes committed in Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia.
By shifting the focus to every state’s ‘responsibility to protect’ rather than the big powers’ ‘right to intervene,’ by emphasizing prevention as well as reaction, and by committing to international collective action – including, when necessary, through the collective security provisions of the UN Charter – R2P made possible a global consensus completely lacking in previous decades.
The 2005 World Summit brought us closer than ever to translating the post-Holocaust dream of “never again” into a meaningful reality. It was a significant diplomatic achievement for all heads of state and government worldwide to acknowledge that genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and ethnic cleansing – even when committed within a sovereign state – are matters of international concern and thus demand timely and decisive response.
But 20 years later – with all too obvious horrors and civilian suffering still occurring in Gaza, Sudan, the DRC, Myanmar and elsewhere – it is clear that R2P is still at best a work in progress. It is time to reflect on what we have learned about preventing and responding to the atrocity crimes outlined in the World Summit Outcome Document, and to focus on how we can do better.
On the plus side, considerable progress has been made in our collective knowledge of the risk factors, causes and dynamics that drive mass atrocity crimes and in enhancing our responsiveness to warning signs, including through the development of the UN’s Framework of Analysis for Atrocity Crimes. There is now a solid understanding of the wide range of preventive measures available, which includes not only a response to imminent and emerging risks, but also instituting policies, practices and structures that build long-term societal resilience to atrocity crimes.
Alongside these advances is a growing awareness that the different tools available for changing the behavior of would-be perpetrators, or for making victims less vulnerable, must be situated in a more coherent preventive strategy that is tailored to each context.
Moreover, the atrocity prevention agenda has been operationalized across the UN system. The creation of the Joint Office on Genocide Prevention and the Responsibility to Protect has been central to strengthening the UN’s early warning capabilities, as well as for developing the conceptual and practical aspects of R2P.
Since the inception of the Special Adviser on the Responsibility to Protect role, successive Special Advisers have been instrumental in identifying risk factors and clarifying best practices by states, regional organizations and the UN system in response to the threat of atrocity crimes.
In addition, the regular cycle of UN Secretary-General reports and General Assembly debates has reinforced the principle and fostered greater consensus and shared understanding within the UN system. The Group of Friends of R2P, with over 55 members from across all regions, is an important mobilizing force within the UN to advance effective atrocity crime prevention and response.
Over 60 countries from all regions of the world, along with the European Union and Organization of American States, have also appointed an R2P Focal Point, an important step for institutionalizing atrocity prevention at the national level. The appointment of a national R2P Focal Point is crucial for strengthening domestic capacity to fulfill the responsibility to protect, including by improving intra-governmental and inter-governmental efforts to prevent and halt atrocity crimes.
Furthermore, the international community has also made strides in its willingness and capacity to hold perpetrators responsible through international investigative bodies and mechanisms, international courts and tribunals, and in national courts under the principle of universal jurisdiction. Transitional justice and memorialization also remain hallmarks of a broader commitment to deal with the past and promote truth, justice and non-recurrence.
Nonetheless, for all these significant institutional advances, we are all acutely aware that, 20 years on from the World Summit, the principle of R2P is under acute strain. There is a deeply troubling disconnect between the unanimous commitment to protecting populations from atrocity crimes and achieving consistent implementation and concrete preventive action.
All too often, effective national, regional and international action is inhibited by self-interested political arguments advanced in key institutions with a capacity to make a difference, including the UN Security Council. When principles and their practical application are contested it is time, more than ever, for UN member states to stand firm and do the hard work of continuing to find and build the consensus needed to protect populations at risk.
Moreover, there is a worrying decline in attention to atrocity crime prevention and the role of the Special Adviser on R2P within the UN Secretariat. This stands in stark contrast to the still very strong support from the great majority of UN member states and from civil society, human rights defenders, affected communities and victims’ and survivors’ groups around the world.
To consolidate the effectiveness of R2P, there is much more that needs to be done, and the work needs to start at home – not least at the UN Headquarters, but also on a national and regional level. At the core of R2P is a responsibility to invest in the institutional architecture to prevent the drivers of atrocity crimes from emerging or intensifying.
This anniversary year presents a crucial opportunity for the UN system, and particularly the UN Secretary-General and the Secretariat, to demonstrate ongoing commitment to fulfilling the responsibility to protect across all regions of the world.
The UN has proven time and again that it can mobilize resources and expertise to safeguard those at risk, with a notable track record of defending human rights and protecting vulnerable populations despite facing immense challenges. Rather than retreating from these efforts, it is critical that the UN and its member states redouble them, by honing and strengthening the capabilities needed to deliver effective prevention and response. Political and ideological differences must not be allowed to distract us from identifying signs of increased risk, wherever they may be, and taking early action to prevent atrocity crimes.
The strong commitments made in 2005 are as relevant today as they were 20 years ago. At a time of escalating conflicts, as well as threats to multilateralism and international justice, the UN Secretary-General and the UN must provide an alternative vision for the future in which a key element is the consistent implementation of R2P.
The future of R2P will only be secured if we – the UN system, intergovernmental and regional organizations, governments, civil society organizations and affected communities – fight for it and generate the political will to act. It would be a tragedy to give in to cynicism and skepticism, to overlook the continuing power of R2P as an inspiring ideal and to abandon the goal of seeing it fully and effectively implemented in all its dimensions.
This month of commemoration must serve as a reminder that indifference and inaction should never be an acceptable response whenever and wherever populations face the threat of genocide and other atrocity crimes.
Professor Gareth Evans is Co-Chair, International Advisory Board, Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect; Dr. Jennifer Welsh is Chair, International Advisory Board, Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect.
BRUSSELS, Belgium, Apr 11 2025 (IPS) – Europe must understand that the only reasonable and humane way to tackle migrant smuggling is to open regular routes for people to reach Europe in safety and dignity.
Europe’s approach to migrant ‘smuggling’ is harmful and absurd.
Instead of tackling the lack of regular pathways, thereby forcing people to embark in dangerous migration journeys, European countries are targeting migrants, human rights defenders, journalists, lawyers and ordinary citizens — all while injecting billions into the border surveillance industry.
People rely on smuggling because there are no better ways to get to Europe. But cracking down on alleged ‘smugglers’ – often migrants themselves – does not create better options. On the contrary, it pushes more people onto ever more dangerous routes, while threatening those who help them — and the EU’s new Facilitation Directive is likely to make things worse.
Criminalising solidarity
Proposed by the European Commission at the end of 2023, this Directive is meant to update previous rules to counter migrant smuggling (the 2002 Facilitators Package). However, in reality, it follows the same old broken pattern.
The current text, largely validated by the EU Council last December, expands the definition of what can be considered ‘migrant smuggling’ and ups prison sentences across the board.
The European Parliament is set to start debating its own position on the Directive this month, with a final vote expected in the summer, before entering final negotiations with the Commission and Council towards the end of the year.
What’s more, the text fails to clearly protect solidarity with people in an irregular situation from criminalisation. There is no ‘humanitarian clause’ included among the legally binding provisions; member states are simply invited not to criminalise acts of solidarity.
This generates significant legal uncertainty, as recognised by a recent study requested by the European Commission itself. With far-right and other anti-immigration forces in power in several member states and leading in polls in others, it’s easy to see how such a failure leaves the door wide open to the criminalisation and harassment of family members, NGOs, human rights defenders and ordinary citizens who are helping people in need.
This is not a fantasy scenario. At PICUM we have been documenting a steady increase in the criminalisation of solidarity with migrants in recent years. Between January 2021 and March 2022, at least 89 people were criminalised, in 2022 at least 102 and in 2023 at least 117.
Migrants themselves are also increasingly being prosecuted for simply helping fellow travellers through routes made irregular and dangerous by repressive policies.
These figures are most likely an undercount. Statistical and official data on those accused, charged or convicted of smuggling and related offences are often lacking. Many cases go unreported by the media or because people, especially migrants themselves, fear retaliation.
Behind these numbers are people who have saved lives at sea, given a lift or provided shelter, food, water or clothes. In Latvia, two citizens were charged with facilitating irregular entry simply for giving food and water to migrants stranded at the border with Belarus.
In Poland, five people are facing up to five years in prison for providing humanitarian aid to people stranded at the border with Belarus.
Just a few weeks ago, Italian judges in Crotone acquitted Maysoon Majidi, a Kurdish-Iranian activist and filmmaker, who was arrested in 2023 on human trafficking charges following a landing of migrants in Calabria. Majidi faced a sentence of two years and four months in prison.
The prosecutor in Crotone had accused her of being ‘the captain’s assistant’ because, based on the unverified testimonies of two people on board, she distributed water and food on the vessel. The ‘witnesses’ later retracted their statements, but Majidi still spent 300 days in pre-trial detention.
In Greece, an Egyptian fisherman and his 15-year-old child were charged with smuggling, simply because the father reluctantly agreed to pilot their boat in order to afford the journey. The father was placed in pre-trial detention and sentenced to 280 years in prison. Not only has the child been separated from his father, but he is now facing the same charges in a juvenile court.
Who benefits?
Counter-smuggling policies clearly fail to make migration safer. As migration expert Hein De Haas has written: ‘It is the border controls that have forced migrants to take more dangerous routes and that have made them more and more dependent on smugglers to cross borders.
Smuggling is a reaction to border controls rather than a cause of migration in itself.’ So, who actually benefits from these policies — besides politicians chasing short-term electoral gains?
Between 2021 and 2027, the EU’s budget dedicated to the management of borders, visa and customs controls increased by 135 per cent compared to the previous programming period, from €2.8 billion to €6.5 billion.
Europe must understand that the only reasonable and humane way to tackle migrant smuggling is to open regular routes for people to reach Europe in safety and dignity.
Much of this budget increase is driven by private corporations, including major defence companies such as Airbus, Thales, Leonardo and Indra, which have a vested economic interest in border surveillance.
According to research by the foundation porCausa, the Spanish government awarded over €660 million for the control of Spain’s southern border between 2014 and 2019. Most of this money went to 10 large corporations, mainly for border surveillance (€551 million), detention and deportation (€97.8 millions).
In the negotiation phase of the Facilitation Directive, the Council has already adopted a position that would leave the door open to the criminalisation of migrants and the provision of humanitarian aid.
The European Parliament still has the opportunity to adopt an ambitious mandate. MEPs should understand what is at stake if a binding clause to protect migrants and solidarity from criminalisation is not introduced.
Beyond this Directive, Europe must understand that the only reasonable and humane way to tackle migrant smuggling is to open regular routes for people to reach Europe in safety and dignity.
Michele LeVoy is Director, Platform for International Cooperation on Undocumented Migrants (PICUM), a network of organizations working to ensure social justice and human rights for undocumented migrants.
Source: International Politics and Society (IPS), Brussels.
