A comprehensive approach to counter migrant smuggling

Given its complexity, smuggling of migrants cannot be addressed by a law enforcement approach alone. The smuggling of migrants occurs in the wider and multifaceted context of irregular migration, with smugglers providing options to potential migrants who cannot access legal channels to cross borders.

In 2017, there were an estimated 58 million irregular migrants in the world, many of whom are believed to have relied on smugglers illegal services (IOM GMDAC, 2018: 48). The smuggling of migrants must be addressed with a holistic approach that understands the drivers and enablers that fuel the crime, as well as the capacity gaps of governments to manage migration (read more on drivers of migration in Chapter The global context of international migration). The criminal justice approach is one component of this wider picture.

Policy Approaches
The four-pillar approach to counter migrant smuggling

Adopt a comprehensive approach based on the four pillars of:

  • Prevention of migrant smuggling;
  • Prosecution (and investigation) of migrant smugglers;
  • Protection of the rights of smuggled migrants;
  • Cooperation to address migrant smuggling.
Source

UNODC, 2011a.

Migration policies have a complex relationship with the smuggling of migrants. On the one hand, where migration is poorly managed, with overly lax approaches to document control and visa issuance, systems are easily abused. On the other hand, where migration policies are overly restrictive, the demand for smuggling services to circumvent them could increase and the associated costs of smuggling may rise, because of the increasingly clandestine and sophisticated methods needed to arrange for the irregular entry of a person.

In confronting migrant smuggling, States may find that their obligations to protect and assist migrants are in competition with their interests in controlling borders, managing migration and addressing criminal activity. Reconciling these objectives requires a comprehensive approach to counter migrant smuggling

To Go Further
Understanding and addressing the demand side of smuggling

The social, political, social and economic situation of each State may influence the choice of their own nationals to migrate (read more on drivers of migration in Chapter The global context of international migration and in Chapter Migration and development). The perfect environment for smuggling is created in situations where legal channels are unavailable to prospective migrants, or too expensive or complicated for them to access. As restrictions on movement and entry become increasingly severe, demand for smuggling services to circumvent them rises, strengthening the market for smugglers and driving up the fees they can command (Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime, 2018: 14; Mixed Migration Centre [MMC], 2018: 105, 109).

People who are smuggled represent a cross section of humanity, with different reasons for being smuggled. Many opt to use smugglers in order to seek out opportunities for work or study in wealthier countries than their own. Others rely on smuggling services to flee natural disasters, violence, conflict or persecution, having no access to regular migration channels to do so. Increased insecurities in origin countries are met with a corresponding increase in demand for the services offered by smugglers (further discussed in The smuggling of migrants during crises).

For many migrants, the risks involved in undertaking smuggling journeys are outweighed by the potential gains; even along the most dangerous routes, smuggled migrants still expect to successfully arrive in the destination country. Where migrants lack financial resources, they are also highly vulnerable to low-cost, high-risk smuggling routes, and vulnerable to unscrupulous smugglers who may take advantage of their desperation to extort or exploit them. Some people seeking the help of smugglers to gain illegal entry have criminal motives or seek to gain illegal entry for nefarious reasons. But the primary threat that arises from the crime of migrant smuggling does not come from the people being smuggled. Rather, it comes from the organized criminals who are smuggling them. In many countries, the business of migrant smuggling generates significant income for the local population in the absence of other income sources, with smugglers providing a service to communities for whom movement is socially and culturally normal (Reitano and Kaysser, 2018: 66; Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime, 2018: 13; MMC, 2018: 106, 116). Moreover, while media reports tend to focus on the dangers posed by smugglers, in some cases, smuggling services are sought by migrants not only to evade detection, but also to increase the probability of safe travel through treacherous parts of the journey, such as overland trails in the jungles of Southeast Asia, and deserts in Africa and the Americas (UNODC, 2018b: 25).

Article / Quotes

I have been hearing all these horrible stories about immigrants being beaten and mugged by smugglers, but I had a different experience. They did not cause me any trouble. I guess maybe that is because I paid them well…. That said, you can’t trust the smugglers fully. They will tell you one thing, and they will do a different thing. 

Source

Migrant voice, cited in IOM and Samuel Hall, 2018

Understand and address the supply side of smuggling

Smugglers not only take advantage of the demand for migration pathways and the shortage of affordable and accessible regular options. They can also be “vectors” of irregular migration, influencing who moves, where and how by proactively recruiting people to migrate, even advertising on social media (Reitano and Kaysser, 2018: 66; Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime, 2018: 2, 15).

Smugglers’ Modus Operandi

Smuggling networks have been compared to business networks in which individuals or groups perform specialized functions and quickly adapt to evolving market forces. The features of smuggling networks differ across regions, from simple to more sophisticated; they can range from more hierarchical and professional criminal organizations to loosely connected groups and opportunistic freelancers active on different legs of a smuggling route. Table 1 illustrates different modus operandi.

Table
Table 1. Examples of smugglers’ modus operandi
SIMPLE METHODS SOPHISCATED METHODS
  • Ad hoc provision of transportation across border (river crossing, vessels, truck ride, etc.)
  • Use of informal and ad hoc contacts for recruitment and facilitation
  • Smuggler operates individually and with some ad hoc or personal contacts such as family, friends.
  • Provision and use of fraudulent travel and identity documents
  • Accommodation along the route
  • Corruption of public officials
  • Use of organized criminal networks across several countries or regions
  • Use of social media to facilitate recruitment of migrants, inform on routes, services, prices and means of payment
  • Use of money laundering methods
Example
Advertisement of smuggling services on Facebook

Smugglers use social media to advertise their services, looking like an easy and safe travel option with testimonies from previous smuggled migrants. Facebook removes the post when flagged by users or newspapers, as in these two instances:

The movement of migrants can be arranged by land, sea and air. The smuggling method might differ according to the type of border crossing being undertaken, the level of payment demanded, and the border control policies of the country being entered. Crossing through official border crossing points is usually arranged through fraudulent documentation or, in the case of land and sea borders, by concealment in freight vehicles, with or without the knowledge of the vehicle operator/driver. Even though fraught with danger, thousands of migrants are smuggled by sea every year. Large vessels such as fishing boats or cargo ships have been used in combination with unseaworthy rubber dinghies. Smuggling by air usually involves crossing airports in more than one country and often involving routings; smuggled migrants might be directed through a transit country that freely admits them on their genuine documents, where they are re-documented with fraudulent passports or visas by smugglers to facilitate their movement onwards to the destination country and enable illegal stay.

The duration of the smuggling journey can range from a few days or several months and sometimes even years. Many migrants remain stranded in transit countries as result of their interception or/and detention, or due to the exhaustion of financial resources to pay for the next leg of the journey. Smuggled migrants en route are particularly vulnerable to various forms of exploitation and abuse, sometimes at the hand of the smuggler or other criminals.

Structure of smuggling networks

On the more organized side of smuggling, actors may be more hierarchical, with networks spanning several countries or regions, including low-level petty criminals or unsuspecting persons with knowledge of local context, a well as middlemen and more senior level criminal actors. Those at the top level of a criminal organization will derive the most significant profit, and yet never appear along the smuggling route or come into any contact with the migrants being smuggled. Such criminals may derive noteworthy illicit profit from a range of other forms of organized crime in addition to the smuggling of migrants, including money laundering, drug and weapons smuggling, and even human trafficking (for more, see The smuggling of migrants and associated crimes in this chapter).

Example
Features of a sophisticated smuggling business:
  • Transnational reach;
  • Use of diverse networks of service providers;
  • Ability to influence government officials and the public;
  • Access to large sums of money at many locations; ties with other criminal enterprises;
  • Ability to shift areas of services according to “market” conditions (ease of entry, attractiveness of a destination to existing and prospective clients);
  • Presence of persons capable of violence within their networks.

The smuggling of migrants and associated crimes

Migrant smuggling has become a highly profitable business, given the low operational costs and the persistent high demand as result of stricter migration policies in destination countries. Migrant smuggling is a business that could be worth as much as 10 billion or more United States dollars per year (Lazcko, 2017). Criminal networks that facilitate migrant smuggling will usually commit other crimes at the same time, such as drugs smuggling, trafficking or kidnapping, which can therefore return significant amounts of cash to perpetrators.

Smuggling and corruption

Organized criminal groups could not conduct their large-scale smuggling activities without corrupting public officials. They will corrupt them thanks to the high profits the illicit business generates or by using intimidation and coercion. Corruption is an important obstacle to preventing, detecting and prosecuting the crime of migrant smuggling; it also impedes law enforcement cooperation. Smuggling can only be addressed where corruption is also confronted. 

Policy Approaches
Preventing and addressing corruption to fight migrant smuggling
  • Implement anticorruption measures deriving from the United Nations Convention against Corruption (UNCAC);
  • Develop risk mitigation strategies to assess vulnerabilities of agencies and/or individuals to corruption.
  • Adopt ethical standards and codes of conduct for everyone in the organization in line with international standards.
To Go Further
Policy Approaches
Addressing the supply side of migrant smuggling
  • Understand the modus operandi of smuggling networks.
  • Control the import and registration of vessels, rubber dinghies and motors commonly used by smugglers.
  • Ensure the integrity and security of identity and travel documents, as well as of the process by which they are issued.
  • Reinforce efforts to trace, seize and confiscate the assets of smuggling, with the aim to reach high level organizers.
  • Develop strategies to make the smuggling business less profitable in order to disincentivize organized criminal groups from offering smuggling services.
Key Messages
  • States should adopt a comprehensive approach based on the four pillars of prosecution, protection, prevention and cooperation.
  • Policies and programmes should take into account the factors governing the demand and supply of migrant smuggling.
  • For awareness-raising campaigns to be effective, they must be properly targeted with meaningful messaging.
  • Making the migration governance system more effective could help to reduce the demand for smuggling services.
  • Smugglers’ modus operandi are rapidly changing in response to immigration policies and law enforcement measures. Migrant smuggling is linked with other actions of organized criminal groups, usually committed by the same groups along the same routes.
  • Policy development and law enforcement responses need to be collaborative, proactive and imaginative, using intelligence and the best available technology to be ahead of smugglers.
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