Abstract
In 2015 and 2016, hundreds of thousands of people wandered across Eur opean Union ((( EU }}) countries seeking a place to remain*. They came from third countries ; they were therefore migrants and/or refugees with no home in the EU countries.
In many cases they arrived from countries other than their home ones, where they had already spent time in refugee camps. Then there were local residents in Austria, Czech Republic, Denmark, France and other countries who helped the migrants who were crossing the borders of the EU states, or who were living at train stations there.
Local residents of European countries saved migrants who were drowning in the Mediterranean Sea, or who were walking on highways in the middle of nowhere. These people helped the migrants with no motivation for profit - they just saw hungry people with insufficient clothing on the road to a safe harbour.
Should those who helped be punished as migrant smugglers ? Were they lifesavers to be praised, or villains to be punished by law ? This paper focuses on such (( humanitarian smuggling }}, as this conduct has been called by several authors.