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Background
Migration is a common and necessary feature of modern life. It is universally acknowledged that migrants have contributed significantly to the development of societies. However, the continuous flow of migrants in an irregular situation, their vulnerability to exploitation, and the association of irregular migration with smuggling and trafficking networks are persistent issues of global concern.
While irregular migration is an area of migration management that concerns governments worldwide, a perspective focused primarily on irregular migration can obscure the broader picture in which properly managed migration can bring benefits both to migrants and societies. A tighter immigration system is part of a legitimate response by States to irregular migration, but the effect may be to push more people into the hands of smugglers and traffickers, thereby increasing vulnerability, if tightening is the only response. Smuggling can and quickly does lead to exploitation and trafficking, and this can undermine security due to links with organized crime, violence, and corruption.
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Measures to effectively combat irregular migration combine law enforcement with prevention and education, both within States and internationally. International cooperation should include control measures, training, research, information, and a variety of preventive measures.
It is important to understand the differences between “trafficking in persons” and “smuggling of migrants”. These terms are not interchangeable and both pose serious challenges to contemporary migration management. These forms of irregular migration are being criminalized internationally.
The campaign against irregular migration takes place within a broader context of migration management that can strengthen and focus on protection and human rights efforts for those truly in need, while at the same time expanding efforts to improve legal opportunities for immigration, primarily through regulated labour programmes.
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Terms and Concepts
The use of physical force or psychological pressure to cause someone to act in a way that is contrary to his or her wishes
A form of migration whereby individual migrants, acting on their own behalf, enter or remain in a country without proper permission. The migrants may or may not be subject to legal sanction.
The use of coercion and misinformation to cause someone to serve the purposes of another in the absence of informed and rational consent. At a minimum, this includes the exploitation of the prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labour or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude, or the removal of organs.
Any travel or identity document that:
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has been falsely made or altered in some material way by anyone other than a person or agency lawfully authorized to make or issue the travel or identity document on behalf of a State
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has been improperly issued or obtained through misrepresentation, corruption, duress, or in any other unlawful manner
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is being used by a person other than the rightful holder.
Crossing borders without complying with the requirements for legal entry into the receiving State
Migration that takes place outside the norms and procedures established by States to manage the orderly flow of migrants into, through, and out of their territories
A form of migrant movement that is facilitated with the agreement of the migrant and usually with payment from the migrant for the smuggling services. Smuggling can be exploitative and dangerous, including fatal, but is not coercive in the sense of trafficking. For the purpose of application of the Palermo Protocol, smuggling requires an organized criminal group in the lead role.
Persons engaged in the exchange of sex services for financial remuneration
The recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring, or receipt of persons by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion. Trafficking is often related to the commercial sex industry and violates human rights. It includes abduction, fraud, deception, and the abuse of power or the abuse of someone in a vulnerable position. The giving or receiving of payments or benefits for the purpose of exploitation by obtaining the consent of one person who has control over another person is also a form of trafficking in persons.
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