Smuggling of migrants in Kosovo

Abstract

Smuggling of migrants, as a serious type of criminality, takes an important place in legal science and criminal legislation. This is due to the fact that actions creating the image of these criminal offences also cause numerous individual, family and societal consequences. Smuggling migrants, with all its consequences, attracts the attention not only of the state authorities, but also the wider public, and numerous researchers and scholars. Nevertheless, despite this fact, this phenomenon has not been studied thoroughly. There is a dire lack of such research in recent years, specifically because of the presence of such crimes in a relatively higher number. This circumstance, specifically the fact that in Kosovo, smuggling migrants is a frequent occurrence, made me engage in studying this type of criminality.The aim of this paper is to research on criminal offences of migrant smuggling in Kosovo, and especially their causes. The causes of these criminal offences may be of numerous natures, but the main causes may be sought in social and economic circumstances, and other conditions related to the unstable political setting, weaknesses in operations of justice authorities, lack of implementation of criminal legislation, etc.In researching the criminal offences of smuggling migrants, I have used the method of historical materialism, legal-dogmatic method, statistical method, complaint method and interviews, and the method of studying individual cases.In the case of addressing criminal offences of smuggling migrants, I have concluded that these offences represent a serious type of crime, thereby resulting in dire individual, family and societal consequences. They are found in all modern societies, including Kosovo.