As smuggling occurs under the radar, it is often not identified or misidentified and consequently not recorded by official sources. Assessing the scale of the problem is therefore a major challenge. While there are measurements of irregular migration around the world, no data exist to determine the extent of migrant smuggling globally IOM, b.
As irregular migration flows are also generally difficult to measure, due to the lack of knowledge about the dynamics of irregular migration in certain regions, it becomes more difficult to pinpoint the number of migrants smuggled.
While clear quantitative data regarding smuggling may not exist, a number of qualitative data does. Such data provide insights into case studies and migrant profiles, which can inform policy even though quantification may be difficult.
Such examples of qualitative data reveal the economic and social processes involved in smuggling. However, due to the sensitivity and maintaining the confidentiality of informants, such data are produced in the form of published work rather than raw data McAuliffe and Laczko, More could be learned about migrant smuggling if countries were encouraged to collect and share data on migrant smuggling in a standardized way ibid.
In addition, new partnerships across research disciplines as well as between policy makers and researchers can be created in order to improve understanding of the various effects smuggling policy may have on smuggling practice. McAuliffe and Laczko also recommend increasing research in and by countries of origin and transit as well as to expand research on emerging topics.
Explore our new directory of initiatives at the forefront of using data innovation to improve data on migration. Smuggling of migrants. Last updated on 6 May Recent trends. Further reading. Golovko, E. As the crime is a clandestine one, accurate global figures are difficult to come by.
The smuggling of migrants is the facilitation of crossing borders illegally or residing illegally in another country with the aim of making a financial or other material profit. This crime is often perpetrated by organized criminal networks, which seize the opportunity to make large profits from an illicit activity involving little risk of detection.
The profiles of the smugglers vary widely. Full-time professional criminals are involved in smuggling migrants around the world; some of those criminals are specialized in smuggling people, and some are not. There is evidence of both smaller and larger, more organized groups and networks operating as smugglers in all areas, although this varies by region and route. There are also many smugglers who run legitimate businesses and are involved in the smuggling of migrants as opportunistic carriers or hospitality providers who choose to look the other way in order to make some extra money.
Corrupt officials and other individuals may also be involved in the process. Smugglers of migrants are becoming more and more organized, establishing professional networks that transcend borders and encompass all regions. As with other forms of organized crime, the groups concerned have increased their operations by shifting routes in a bid to expand into other markets and circumvent the responses of States.
Criminal groups have merged or formed cooperative relationships, expanding their geographical reach and the range of their criminal activities. Some criminal groups view migrants as simply one of many commodities to be smuggled, alongside drugs and firearms. Since the smuggling of migrants is a highly profitable illicit activity with a relatively low risk of detection, it is attractive to criminals.
People move to other countries for many reasons, but for undocumented migrants it is nearly always for a better life. This may be for themselves or for their families, and it may involve searching for work or escaping from poverty, natural disasters, violence, armed conflict or persecution. Profit-seeking criminals exploit the lack of legal opportunities available to migrants and take advantage of their situation by offering services at great cost. While these may include services such as transport, they may also consist of document fraud.
This can include the lending of stolen passports with photos that resemble the migrants, the falsification of travel or identity documents or the obtaining of genuine passports or visas on the basis of fraudulent supporting documents.
Because these services are illegal, the criminals have tremendous power, while the migrants are left vulnerable. Many migrants are abused or die on the way to their destination, and many are abandoned en route without resources. Refugees and asylum seekers, as well as vulnerable migrants such as unaccompanied minors and pregnant women, can be among those who pay a high price for smuggling services with no guarantee for their safety or the success of the venture.
In many cases, migrants are mistreated during the smuggling process and the conditions that they are made to endure are severe. When they realize the situation they are in, some migrants try and turn back, but they are inevitably forced to continue with the journey.
There are many different ways of smuggling migrants; they range from simple to complex, from safe to dangerous and from cheap to very costly. The level of safety and ease of reaching the destination are dependent on the amount of money paid. Migrants with little financial means may opt for a "pay-as-you-go" package in which they pay bit by bit for different parts of the journey to smugglers who may not be linked with one another. Human trafficking is the coercion, abduction or fraudulent recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or reception of people for the purpose of exploitation.
This normally involves an abuse of power or taking advantage of vulnerable people without their consent. How are they similar?
People on the move can be subject to exploitation and abuse along their journey, including forms of human trafficking such as forced labour or sexual exploitation. Smuggling networks are generally not hierarchical, but some individuals may have transnational contacts.
In some cases, for example on the US-Mexico border, criminal gangs are involved. A powerful drug cartel, Los Zetas, is believed to be supervising migrant smuggling. The protocol against the smuggling of migrants by land, sea and air, which supplements the UN convention against transnational organised crime, came into force in January , and countries are party to it. There are a number of red flags that can be used to detect possible smuggling activity.
Feshchenko said the key issue was cooperation between financial investigation units. Much of the money involved would be moved around as cash, or through informal money transfer or remittance systems like hawala. In a report , the Financial Action Task Force — an intergovernmental body working to protect financial systems — detailed a number of cases where migrant smugglers were caught. In five people were arrested in the UK for helping to smuggle roughly 20, Turkish migrants.
They used legitimate businesses like kebab shops and a snooker hall to launder the money. In Senegal, the financial intelligence processing unit found extensive trafficking in visas between that country and Europe.
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