Vienna (Austria), 16 May 2024
Migrant smuggling is a booming criminal enterprise, but several obstacles prevent countries from tackling it effectively.
These include the enormous scale and transnational nature of the crime, the lack of criminalization in many countries and the substantial illicit profits behind it.
The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and the European Union (EU) have been working together to combat migrant smuggling for 15 years. During this time, they have implemented numerous initiatives that aim to address some of the most pressing challenges associated with this crime.
© UNODC - 1 million brochures to raise awareness on human trafficking and migrant smuggling were distributed in Pakistan.
One of UNODC’s flagship projects in this area is the EU-funded Global Action against Trafficking in Persons and the Smuggling of Migrants (GLO.ACT). Since 2015, the initiative has been helping its partner countries respond to migrant smuggling in an innovative, demand-driven, and targeted way.
Migrant smuggling is estimated to be worth 5.5 to 7 billion USD globally, equivalent to the gross domestic product (GDP) of the Maldives or Montenegro.
UNODC has recently documented how this crime is becoming increasingly complex and intertwined with other forms of organized crime, such as corruption, money laundering, as well as human, arms or drug trafficking.
From 2022 to 2023 alone, smugglers transported around 223,000 migrants across the Central Mediterranean Sea – one of the largest and deadliest smuggling routes stretching from North Africa to Italy. This represents an alarming 60 per cent increase compared to the previous year.
Migrant smuggling is no longer a localized issue between countries sharing borders. Migrants sometimes spend years trying to reach their destination in a distant country, making it that much more challenging to detect, investigate and prosecute smugglers.
Despite its overwhelming magnitude, smuggling is not yet criminalized in some parts of the world. This leads to several problems, including the difficulty in effective investigation and prosecution, both domestically and across borders.
The lack of an effective legal and policy framework against migrant smuggling also promotes impunity for the criminals involved, who are then further emboldened in their acts.
“We need to keep improving our responses and partnerships to disrupt and dismantle agile criminal networks and go after their profits,” said Ghada Waly, UNODC Executive Director.
Recent tragedies in various parts of the globe show that smugglers have no qualms about sending overcrowded, dilapidated boats out to sea or locking up people in suffocating containers for days on end. And they often evade accountability if the migrants do not reach their destination alive.
In fact, 2023 was the deadliest year on record for migrants and refugees, with more than 8,000 people dying along migration routes globally – a 20 per cent increase from the previous year.
Besides accidents and disasters, UNODC has extensively documented how smugglers subject migrants to physical violence, extortion, gender-based violence and forced labour.
Smugglers’ services do not come cheap. Criminals charge up to 6,000 EUR for a single Mediterranean crossing from North Africa to Europe. A trip from South Asia to North America can cost anywhere from a few hundred US dollars to as much as 55,000 USD.
© UNODC / Max Brucker - Naela Gabr, Ghada Waly, Carl Hallergård and Abdul Khalique Shaikh at a CCPCJ side event.
