European authorities under pressure to smash smuggling gangs are arresting migrants, journalists and advocates rather than criminals, according to a new report.

Desperate to stem the flow of people, authorities have resorted to cracking down on those seeking safety and those offering migrants help, the report found.

“Under the guise of combating ‘migrant smuggling,’ legislative instruments…create legal grounds for the criminalisation of both people seeking safety and those offering assistance,” the document, by Border Violence Monitoring Network (BWVN), read.

“It is not migration that constitutes a crime,” the group said. “It is the violent policies, the denial of safe routes, and the ongoing criminalisation that must be confronted as the real injustice.”

That “people on the move face systemic detention, unfair trials, evictions, constant policing and deportation” indicates how difficult it is to break up the organised crime networks responsible for illicitly moving thousands of people across borders each year.

Experts have noted that tighter border enforcement and migration policy entrenches smuggling gangs, making them stronger and more powerful in the long run, and exposes migrants to greater risk of exploitation.

Europe’s policies of push-backs means more people “turn to smugglers and smuggling groups, not just to cross the border, but also to assist them in moving around [within countries],” said Milica Svabic, a lawyer from the Serbia-based NGO, KlikAktiv.

Stronger border enforcement can even be profitable for smuggling gangs. In Latin America, groups are now offering speedboats for $250 to $300 per person between Panama and Colombia for those who have been turned away at the US-Mexico border – a ‘service’ that emerged only in recent weeks in response to new Trump administration policies.