2025 International Conference of the Global Alliance to Counter Migrant Smuggling

Convened by the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, and Commissioner for Internal Affairs and Migration, Magnus Brunner, the second International Conference of the Global Alliance to Counter Migrant Smuggling will take place on 10 December 2025, in Brussels. 

Building on the international momentum gained since the launch of the Global Alliance in November 2023, this Conference will bring together representatives from Member States, key partners, EU Agencies as well as international organisations to boost the fight against migrant smuggling. Henna Virkkunen, Executive Vice-President of the European Commission for Tech Sovereignty, Security and Democracy, Maria Luís Albuquerque, Commissioner for Financial Services and the Savings and Investments Union and Jozef Síkela, Commissioner for International Partnerships will also be attending. 

President von der Leyen and Commissioner Brunner will present a Joint Declaration for endorsement by partners. This political statement reaffirms joint determination to strengthen international cooperation in tackling migrant smuggling collectively and globally, in a ‘whole of route’ approach and in the spirit of shared responsibility.

Programme of the second International Conference of the Global Alliance to Counter Migrant Smuggling

Participants will discuss concrete actions and deliverables under all three pillars of the Global Alliance: prevention and responses to migrant smuggling, as well as alternatives to irregular migration. 

The keynote address of President von der Leyen will be transmitted live on EbS.  

See the Conference's complete programme.

Countering migrant smuggling: An EU priority

Migrant smuggling is increasingly associated with serious human rights violations and deaths, including when it occurs by sea. Since 2014, a staggering number of almost 80,000 people have drowned or gone missing at sea. The loss of migrants' lives at the hands of smugglers stresses the acute need to tackle migrant smuggling, using all legal, operational, and administrative measures available.  

The day of the Conference, 10 December 2025, is also International Human Rights Day. A reminder that respect for fundamental rights lies at the heart of the global policy to fight migrant smuggling and those who put the lives of migrants at risk. 

Stepping up the fight against migrant smugglers

Migrant smuggling is a global criminal activity that demands an assertive and urgent response at EU and global level, through close cooperation with different stakeholders both public and private. The Global Alliance's response focuses on three pillars:  

• Preventing migrant smuggling and raising awareness on the risks of irregular migration.
• Strengthening law enforcement and judicial response and cooperation to tackle criminal smuggling networks and hold them accountable.
• Promoting and ensuring effective access to legal pathways, as viable alternatives to irregular migration and dangerous routes, and supporting return, readmission and sustainable reintegration processes. 

Over the last years, the online dimension of migrant smuggling has grown significantly, with criminal networks exploiting digital platforms to attract potential migrants, provide false narratives, coordinate illicit activities, transfer money and hide profits. This Global Alliance aims to enhance international cooperation to disrupt these online criminal networks, protect vulnerable individuals, and bring perpetrators to justice. 

As President von der Leyen explained: 

“We must work together with social media platforms to put an end to the online organisation and online advertising of smuggling operations. We must work more closely with airlines […]. And it is only by going after the money that we will be able to track down the criminal networks and cut off their sources of funding. And we need a new system of sanctions specifically targeted at people smugglers and traffickers. To freeze their assets. To restrict their ability to move around. To cut off their profits.”  

Since the launch of the Global Alliance in November 2023, the EU has taken various initiatives to prevent and respond to migrant smuggling. It is building capacity and strengthening cooperation with partner countries along the routes of irregular migration, funding information and awareness campaigns, working with the European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Cooperation (Europol) to foster expertise on digital smuggling and exchange information in this area, and adapting its own legal and operational framework to ensure it is fit to address this growing challenge.  

The EU is also addressing the root causes of irregular migration, by contributing to creating job opportunities in foreign countries, and promoting alternatives to irregular migration, notably through the launch of strategic partnerships with countries of origin and transit, as well as Talent Partnerships to enhance legal pathways to the EU. 

Further actions include the adoption of the G7 Action Plan to Prevent and Counter the Smuggling of Migrants and the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) General Assembly decision to address the smuggling of migrants by air. Cooperation with private stakeholders is needed to go forward and fully implement the measures of the 2023 Toolbox, to prevent the use of commercial means of transport for irregular migration to the EU. 

Working together with the United Nations Office for Drugs and Crime, the EU supports initiatives advancing the objectives of the Global Alliance worldwide. Overall, the EU is investing more than EUR 700 million to support ongoing cross-border collaborations preventing and responding to migrant smuggling and trafficking in human beings. These include law enforcement and judicial cooperation, border management, and information and awareness raising campaigns.