Countering migrant smuggling in the Republic of Serbia

Abstract

The subject of this paper is the suppression of migrant smuggling in Serbia and the analysis of the first qualified form of the criminal offense of human smuggling under Article 350, paragraph 3 of the Criminal Code, with a particular focus on the sentencing policy of the courts. Irregular migrations and human smuggling throughout the territory of Serbia via the Western Balkan migration route to the European Union countries have been ongoing since 2014. A stricter legislative sentencing policy for human smuggling in Serbia has been applied since June 1, 2017. Courts do not have the ability to reduce the minimum prescribed sentence of 2 years of imprisonment for this form of human smuggling and there is a mandatory legal obligation to confiscate the means used for smuggling, which is most frequently a motor vehicle. Considering that, for human smuggling, when the offense is committed by a group, through abuse of official position, in a manner that endangers the life or health of individuals or involves smuggling a large number of people, the maximum prescribed sentence is 12 years of imprisonment, a conditional sentence cannot be imposed, and only a prison sentence can be given, even for an attempted offense. Before the tightening of the sentencing policy, the court could replace the minimum prescribed prison sentence of one year with house arrest. Data from the Statistical Office of the Republic of Serbia, which pertains to the entire territory of Serbia and to four statistical regions individually, as well as data from the Ministry of Internal Affairs and judgments from the Higher Court in Subotica, which is responsible for the North Bačka Administrative District where there was the highest concentration of irregular migrants leaving Serbia on the way to the European Union countries, were analyzed using statistical methods, content analysis, comparative analysis, and formallogical analysis. The research conducted pertains to the period from 2018 to 2023. The aim of this paper is to present the results of the research and to determine if changes in police strategy for combating this type of crime have an impact on the state of criminality in the field of human smuggling.