Commentary on Sections Offences Section 1 : Assisting Unlawful Immigration
16.Section 1 amends section 25 of the Immigration Act 1971 which creates an offence of facilitating the commission of a breach of immigration law. “Immigration law” means a law which has effect in a member State and which controls entitlement to enter the State, transit across the State or be in the State.
17.The amendment allows the Secretary of State to make an order prescribing additional States which are to be regarded as “member States” for the purposes of the section if he considers it necessary for the purpose of complying with the United Kingdom’s EU obligations. The nationals of these states are also to be deemed to be citizens of the European Union for the purposes of section 25 of the 1971 Act. This is necessary to comply with the EU Council Directive (2002/90/EC) and EU Council Framework Decision (2002/946/JHA). The Directive and associated Framework Decision require member States to create the offence of assisting a person who is not a national of a member State to enter or reside in a member State contrary to the laws of that member State. This offence must apply in relation to Norway and Iceland as well as the member States.
18.Subsection (2) makes a minor amendment to section 25C of the 1971 Act to make clear that the references to “member State” and “immigration law” in subsection (9)(a) thereof have the same meaning as in section 25.