Chapter 3 focuses in detail on the challenge migratory testimonies pose to the EU’s preventative policy agenda, specifically by highlighting the ineffectiveness of the deterrence paradigm and by situating it within long-standing histories of racialised violence. Problematising the assumption that prevention or deterrence stymies unauthorised movement at source and changes the behaviour of those on the move, the chapter shows how knowledge of deterrent policies is often lacking. It also shows how migration drivers remain critical in understanding the continued movements of people across the Mediterranean. In this context, the chapter argues that the EU’s emphasis on anti-smuggling ultimately contributes to the lived experience of precarity by forcing people into increasingly perilous journeys to the EU. The analysis shows how people face a continuum of violence en route, including by authorities, as people on the move become increasingly dependent on smugglers and as migratory journeys become longer and more risky.