Human Smuggling Research Articles

North Korean Migrants in China: A Case Study of Human Smuggling and Trafficking

North Korean Migrants in China: A Case Study of Human Smuggling and Trafficking

Combating Migrant Smuggling by Sea: Analysis of EU Action Plan Against Migrant Smuggling and Standards of Migrant Smuggling Protocol

Migrant smuggling is one of the main issues challenging national security systems. This issue also threatens common international security. Migrant smuggling toward European countries is mainly organized through maritime routes. Therefore, to treat this issue in a more focused way, the purpose of this paper is to address the issue of migrant smuggling standards and regulations that are promoted by the Protocol against the Smuggling of Migrants, with a special emphasis on migrant smuggling by sea. In addition, this paper aims to address the EU policy regarding the prevention and combating of migrant smuggling by sea. From the data obtained from this study, we can understand that the issue of preventing and combating migrant smuggling by sea is addressed by some standards of the Protocol against the Smuggling of Migrants, which has been ratified by 152 of the UN Member States and serves as an important basis to facilitate the prevention and combating of migrant smuggling by sea. Furthermore, the European Union has addressed the issue of migrant smuggling by sea, and based on the findings so far, this issue has become an important part of the EU Security Union Strategy, the EU action plan against migrant smuggling, and several other important documents in the EU. The investigation and prosecution of this form of transnational organized crime requires a coordinated approach between the authorities of the countries whose laws are violated by this form of criminality.

The Criminal Act of Smuggling Indonesian Workers Abroad, Human Smuggling Perspective

<em>The business, as usual, of work-carrying can't be isolated from the issues of interest and supply. The bootleggers will work with the individuals who can pay, then, at that point, find go-betweens, then, at that point, transport skippers and individuals who will make counterfeit reports if essential. The humanistic lawful exploration strategy is an overview, in particular an examination that takes information straightforwardly from respondents involving interviews as an information assortment device, and afterward the information taken is handled so determinations are made utilizing a logical technique. In the mean time, assuming we take a gander at its tendency, this exploration is illustrative, specifically research that makes sense of in clear and itemized sentences the two issue definitions examined. Illegal exploitation is a type of transnational coordinated wrongdoing that can possibly have different ramifications for different violations. Human carrying can be a shortcoming of a country's general set of laws in dealing with instances of stowed-away inspiration by outsiders to make their country a go-between country for that nation's violations. Different violations might emerge because of human carelessness in completing the act of illegal exploitation, like regular wrongdoings (extortion, assault, murder, and robbery), transportation, illegal exploitation, tax evasion, banking wrongdoings, and psychological warfare.</em>

Exploring the Role of the Criminal Justice System in Combating Human Trafficking in Pakistan

This research article examines the multifaceted phenomenon of human trafficking within the context of Pakistan's criminal justice system. The phenomenon of human trafficking, in conjunction with associated concerns such as human smuggling and unauthorized migration, poses a multifaceted dilemma influenced by a range of socio-economic factors. The research investigates the complexities of human trafficking, examining its conceptualizations, expressions, and fundamental origins. Considerable emphasis is placed on the involvement of the criminal justice system in tackling the issue of human trafficking, encompassing activities such as prosecution, victim assistance, and preventive measures. This study critically examines the efficacy of Pakistan's criminal justice system in addressing the issue of human trafficking, drawing upon relevant scholarly literature and empirical research. Furthermore, the study underscores the significance of global cooperation and collaboration in addressing this transnational criminal activity. In the conclusion section, the author underscores the need for comprehensive approaches that prioritize victim protection, legal enforcement, and addressing root causes to effectively combat human trafficking in Pakistan and beyond.

Exploring the ‘Blurred Boundary’: Human Smuggling and Trafficking on the Central Mediterranean Route to Europe

Exploring the ‘Blurred Boundary’: Human Smuggling and Trafficking on the Central Mediterranean Route to Europe

From smuggled migrants to ‘alleged smugglers’: Empirical evidence and policy perspectives on the criminalization of people on the move in Italy

AbstractSince 2014, numerous people on the move have been accused of migrant smuggling in Italian courts for steering makeshift vessels or for assisting in navigation across the Mediterranean Sea. This is the case regardless of the fact that such behaviour was the result of coercion or threats. In this contribution, drawing upon extensive empirical research and following a socio‐legal paradigm, I first explore the criminalization of people on the move in relation to migrant smuggling charges in the years following the so‐called 2014–2015 refugee crisis and discuss the impact on their rights. Second, I tackle the issue from a policy perspective, considering three potential EU/national policy reforms and the ways in which they could successfully address an existing policy problem. Such reforms vary in scope, from a damage limitation logic to a fully fledged change of paradigm, and the three can be described as follows: alignment of EU and national frameworks with the United Nations Protocol against migrant smuggling; a more significant differentiation between migrant smuggling and the facilitation of undocumented migration; and an explicit exoneration from criminal liability for people on the move accused of migrant smuggling. This article presents innovative insights, providing on the one hand an up‐to‐date empirical understanding of this form of criminalization of people on the move and, on the other, extensive reflections on the way in which policy reforms could prevent it.

Smuggling of forced migrants to Europe: a matching model

Smuggling of forced migrants to Europe: a matching model

The Silent Threat: Human Trafficking and Migrant Smuggling Procedures Through the Eyes of the Courts in Malaysia

Human trafficking and migrant smuggling are two severe international crimes. It is a worldwide problem, and it is particularly pernicious. There are many parts to human trafficking, including forced labour, commercial sex, and organ harvesting. Human traffickers are known to use violent, manipulative, and deceptive methods and tactics to lure vulnerable targets into situations of exploitation. In Malaysia, it is estimated that millions of men, women, and children worldwide are victims of these crimes. The international community has adopted the protocols and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime in assisting member states to combat these internationally organised crimes. However, there are inadequate laws, both substantive and procedural, in place to deal with those who perpetrate such crimes, to bring them to account for their misdeeds, and to protect the victims of such crimes where such crimes continue to flourish because of the high profits.

Government Efforts in Overcoming the Crime of Trafficking in People Behind Rohingya Refugees

The crime of human trafficking is no longer an unfamiliar event to be discussed. This crime is international in scale and very difficult to detect. Even though they have to be willing to pay a high price, they often use human smuggling methods because formal ways to enter other countries are not possible. The act of human smuggling is a criminal offense in the Smuggling Protocol in which countries visited by Rohingya refugees such as Thailand, Bangladesh, and even Indonesia have become party countries. As a result, the Thai and Bangladeshi governments often arrest Rohingya refugees who enter their countries and even expel them to return to Myanmar. In fact, as asylum seekers who are threatened with persecution, the Rohingya are protected by human rights law, especially the principle of non-refoulement. This research discusses obstacles to resolution in handling the crime of human trafficking and government policies regarding Rohingya refugees who are victims of the crime of human trafficking. The conclusion of this research is that although the Smuggling Protocol is able to provide a balance between law enforcement of human protection crimes and protection of asylum seekers, in the end it all depends on government policy in tackling criminal acts of human trafficking in Indonesia.

The Problem of Migration from Sub-Saharan Africa to Algeria in the Twenty-First Century

In the twenty-first century, there was a sharp increase in migration from sub-Saharan Africa to Algeria, and the Sahel zone became a hot stop for illegal human smuggling. Some immigrants go to the north of the country to continue their journey to Europe; others remain in Algeria, treating it as a destination country and do not continue their journey. Algeria has been repeatedly accused of using illegal practices against migrants, such as deportations, pushbacks, and detentions. The aim of the article is to try to assess the scale of the problem of illegal immigration in Algeria based on available statistical data and their periodisation. The main routes taken by migrants will be described, as well as the basic principles of migration policy in Algeria. The following hypotheses were put forward: 1) Algeria is mainly a transit country for migrants from sub-Saharan Africa; 2) The main irregular migration routes lead from the Sahel zone; 3) There is unequal treatment of people in terms of violations of Algerian law (division into Algerians and others). For the purposes of the article, the following research methods were used – analysis and synthesis, comparative method, statistical method, and systemic approach.

The Geopolitical Context of Migrant Routes and Its Impact on Organised Crime in the Republic of North Macedonia

As a country with a specific geopolitical and geostrategic position, North Macedonia, positioned in the centre of the Balkan Peninsula, is subject to illegal migration and is located at the crossroads of migrant routes leading from Asia and Africa to Central and Western Europe. Therefore, the article makes an effort to answer two related questions. The first question refers to the geopolitical context of migrant routes and their impact on the increase in migrant smuggling, while the second one is the focus of migrant smuggling within organised crime groups. In terms of time, the research covers the period of the COVID-19 pandemic. The methodology of this paper is based on an analysis of policy documents from open sources. Also, the authors surveyed more than one hundred Macedonian police officers who work directly on the borders and engage in the suppression of smuggling migrants, and an in-depth interview with the head of the National Unit for Combating Migrant Smuggling and Trafficking in North Macedonia.

Smuggling as a Material Critique of Borders

ABSTRACT By drawing on ethnographic and historical accounts of migrant smuggling and forgery from the smugglers’ perspectives, this essay shifts the focus from a state-centric understanding of smuggling as a criminal activity conducted by ‘greedy’ individuals and ‘mafia rings’, to a specific form of practice that operates through a series of concrete material techniques. It argues that smuggling recognises and reworks the material and technological features of borders which are vulnerable to reappropriation. These vulnerabilities inherent to the materialisation of abstract notions such as borders are understood and discussed as ‘reproducibility’, ‘repetition’, and ‘imitation’. Smuggling not only reconfigures the apparatus of borders to provide support for those who are denied access to mobility, but also can teach us something about a specific mode of critique that I call a material mode of critique. The material mode of critiquing borders goes beyond a discursive mode which mostly locates politicians, academics, and activists as the critics of border politics. This mode can open up new possibilities of thinking about and against borders.

Fragments of solidarity: the social worlds of African migrants moving northwards

ABSTRACT The article provides a framework through which to analyse the experiences and social trajectories of migration from East Africa to North Africa and Europe. On the one side, it explores the systematic relationship between war and mobility, and on the other, it highlights the social worlds generated by such mobility. The article argues that these social worlds represent crucial elements for understanding contemporary (Eastern) African societies and their political dynamics, in relation to (a) the increased relevance of migration diplomacy, (b) the spatial interconnectivity constructed through mobility and (c) the transnational and diasporic spheres that lie at the core of the social and economic reproduction of states and societies in the Horn and more generally in Eastern Africa. We highlight, through these interconnections, the genealogies and transformations of the systems of violence composing the reality of migration in the regions explored, but also the various and interconnected systems of solidarity which, although fragmented and even misused at times, sustain migrants’ trajectories, social projects and resistance. In doing so, the article argues that it is necessary to explore present and historical local understandings and conceptualisations of migration, in relation to solidarity practices, forced migration, migrant smuggling, imaginaries of mobility.

Images of torture: ‘affective solidarity’ and the search for ransom in the global Somali community

ABSTRACT Recent migration trends among the Somali youth and the rise of the migrant smuggling network, in Somali known as Magafe, have rendered traditional practices of solidarity ambiguous. Somali notions of solidarity have historically been a mechanism of care within the clan system. In this article, we argue that traditional practices of solidarity are challenged through the intensification of ransom collection in the Somali community. In recent years, increasing numbers of young Somali migrants have been taken captive in the deserts of Sudan and Libya. Appealing to affective responses, the Magafe network use images and sound recordings of beatings and torture to convince family members, and the wider Somali community, to pay extortionate ransoms. Based on fieldwork conducted in Somaliland in 2013, 2015 and 2021 among Somali families affected by irregular youth migration, the article finds that the willingness and ability of clan members to pay the ever-increasing sums are dwindling. Consequently, mass and social media are widely used by family members and the Magafe network alike to spread the images, sound bites and the phone numbers for money transfer. They thereby appeal to what the article conceptualizes as the ‘affective solidarity’ of the global Somali community.

Assemblages of mobility and violence: the shifting social worlds of Somali youth migration and the meanings of tahriib, 2005–2020

ABSTRACT Drawing on two periods of fieldwork (2007–2008 and 2019–2020) conducted between Somaliland and Italy, this article traces, from a longitudinal perspective, the migratory journeys from Somalia to Libya and Europe of a new generation of young asylum-seekers. The underlying thread linking the two temporal frames is the transformations of the word tahriib. Travelling between Libya and Somalia, the word takes on new meanings: while in the emerging institutional language on migration, the word referred to growing dimensions of control and containment of mobility (in Arabic it refers to human smuggling), for the new generation of young Somali asylum-seekers it alluded initially to a dimension of danger, adventure, and generational rupture, and then became increasingly associated with violence and disruption. These transformations, I argue, reveal the shifting social worlds of Somali youth migration, where protracted crises in the country of origin and struggles for social inclusion in the new transnational Somali society had to adjust to increasingly restrictive forms of regulation of international migration. As the destructive transformations of tahriib unfold, their effects pervade not only the areas of origin and transit but also affect the attempts at integration in European countries, showing the deceitful and uncertain nature of diaspora.

Analysis of Fundamental Challenges in the Combat of Transnational Crimes

Transnational Crimes have existed in some form and to some degree since the inception of organized societies. They have remained prominent in popular culture and policies, evolving through different eras, under different political and economic conditions. These crimes encompass various offences ranging from organized to corporate and political crimes. Specifically, some of the crimes that are transnational in nature include human trafficking, cybercrimes, drug trafficking, migrant smuggling, sea piracy, terrorism amongst others. Globalization enlarged their markets, technological advancements accelerated their trends and the internet fostered development of looser transnational criminal networks. Despite the challenges posed by state sovereignty, the International Community have been actively involved in the suppression of transnational crimes. This is evidenced in the evolution of various Suppression Conventions, principal of which is the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime (UNTOC). Several International Institutions such as the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crimes (UNODC) and the International Criminal Police Organization are also in place to combat transnational crimes. The effectiveness of these mechanisms has been clogged by democratic deficits over the development of Transnational Criminal Law, state complicity in transnational crimes, the absence of a transnational criminal justice system amongst other problems. Recommendations were made in the study for the legitimization of Transnational Criminal Law, establishment of an effective central and neutral authority to oversee international cooperation in transnational criminal matters, stronger infusion of human rights safeguards in transnational criminal justice, establishment of a multi-disciplinary team for the investigation and prosecution of transnational crimes amongst other recommendations. The doctrinal research method was adopted for the study as information contained in the research was gathered from consultation of both secondary and primary sources which are related to the subject of discourse.

Migrant smuggling to Europe: A two-sector model with directed search

Migrant smuggling to Europe: A two-sector model with directed search

Control of Irregular Migration and Suppression of People Smuggling on the Western Balkan Route

Control of Irregular Migration and Suppression of People Smuggling on the Western Balkan Route

Some Things Take Time

Human trafficking (HT) can lead to other types of crime, such as kidnapping, smuggling, and drug trafficking. According to the 2021 Global Estimates, the number of victims is rapidly growing and in 2021 stood at 49.6 million, which is almost ten million more than in 2016. This study, a quantitative content analysis of press articles in Germany, demonstrates the dynamics of coverage during the pandemic and quarantine measures. Methodologically we rely on Entman’s (1993) four-functional classification, including portraits of victims and perpetrators, moral judgments, remedies, and calls to action. In addition, the connection between the political orientation of the newspapers and the coverage of the topic is revealed. The results show, that media construct their own reality: They create a stereotypical victim and focus on certain types of HT. The topic is given a strong political connotation, and the boundaries between HT and human smuggling are blurring.

Unveiling the Shadows: Understanding Social and Demographic Awareness of Migrant Smuggling in Pakistan

Migration as a social issue has gained importance for the government and the people. Illegal migration has caused thousands of people to die due to unawareness of its consequences. Therefore, the present study highlights the socio-economic determinants of awareness of migrant smuggling by taking data from 660 people from Punjab, Pakistan. The paper has made use of descriptive analyses and ordered logit regression analysis to determine the awareness level. The findings of the study have found a significant impact of education, people living in urban areas, people from high social classes, frequency of information, and source of information from peer groups, social media and newsletters on the level of awareness. The study recommends that increasing the level of awareness requires an active role for state agencies and civil society. The government can make use of media, especially electronic media, to launch information campaigns and rapidly transfer knowledge to the general public.