Mr Vo, a Vietnamese national, was a member of organised Vietnamese gangs that assisted other Vietnamese nationals to enter Germany illegally. Their modus operandi was to persuade the Hungarian consulate in Vietnam that those Vietnamese nationals were part of tourist groups whereas, in fact, the trips did not follow the programme except for the first few days. After that, the Vietnamese nationals, who had paid from USD 10 000 to USD 15 000, were transported to other countries, for the most part to Germany.

Mr Vo was arrested by the German authorities, he was prosecuted in criminal proceedings in which he was charged with facilitating illegal immigration. He was sentenced to a term of imprisonment of four years and three months.

The Bundesgerichtshof (Federal Court of Justice, Germany) asked the Court of Justice whether, in such circumstances, it is contrary to EU law for provisions of national law to make aiding and abetting illegal immigration punishable by criminal penalties when nationals of non-member countries who have infiltrated EU territory hold visas obtained by fraud that have not yet been annulled.

The Court concludes that it is not contrary to Union law for provisions of national law to make assisting illegal immigration punishable by criminal penalties when nationals of nonmember countries who have infiltrated Union territory hold visas fraudulently obtained – by deceiving the competent authorities of the Member State issuing the visa about the true purpose of their travel – that have not previously been annulled.

Currently the ruling of the Court is only available in German en French. A summary also exists in Dutch.