Seventeenth Global Studies Conference

Abstract

31,219 irregular migrants arrived to Spain in 2022 and more than 90% of them resorted to the services provided by migrant smuggling networks. This paper analyses the judicial use of the information gathered from the debriefed migrants who were smuggled by sea. The victims, who decide to collaborate with the competent authorities, are considered protected witnesses and their testimonies, due to the risk of not being reachable at the trial hearing, are introduced in the judicial proceedings as pre-constituted evidence. Given the exceptional nature of this type of evidence, the European Court of Human Rights, the Spanish Constitutional Court and the Spanish Supreme Court require that the evidence be complemented with objective elements. In this regard, this paper reveals that the photographs taken by the EU’s decentralized agency, Frontex, are external corroborations that reinforce the statements made by the migrants identifying the boat masters as members of a migrant smuggling network.