Call restricted to Member States for projects aiming to increase law enforcement cooperation to address migrant smuggling

Call summary and aims

The objective is to support projects to strengthen cooperation between EU Member States and third countries both in origin and in transit countries located along the West and North African Migratory Routes to prevent and repress the smuggling of migrants, while ensuring awareness of all engaged actors of the protection of migrants’ human rights. Important is also to strengthen the cooperation between relevant law enforcement authorities of the third countries concerned in order to exchange operational information. In addition, a strengthened operational presence of EU Member State liaison officers in third countries thanks to increased operational support and coordination on the ground is also desirable.

The action is in complementarity with the Rabat Process dialogue between the EU and West African countries to enhance cooperation between countries of origin, transit and destination of irregular migration.

The EU Trust Fund for Africa has also financed a project setting up a joint investigation team to combat irregular immigration, human trafficking and people smuggling – "Création d'une Equipe Conjointe d'Investigation pour la lutte contre les réseaux criminels liés à l'immigration irrégulière, la traite des êtres humains et le trafic des migrants". However, the latter project is focuses on Niger only, therefore the current proposal for preparing and setting up joint investigation teams between EU law enforcement authorities and participating West and North African countries, gives a broader remit and allows for a broader cooperation between the relevant law enforcement agencies in the region. Coordination and complementarities with ongoing externally-financed projects in this area must be ensured through timely information sharing between the relevant Commission services (primarily DG International Cooperation and Development and DG Neighbourhood and Enlargement Negotiations) amongst the different actions to allow for maximising EU funds, impact and visibility across the internal-external security continuum.