Vienna (Austria), 27 September 2023 – Migrant smuggling is a global and lucrative criminal activity that undermines national border management efforts and generates profits that fuel other illegal activities.
Despite the risks to their safety and lives, migrants who have limited or no legal options to migrate procure dangerous and illegal services from smuggling networks to enable illicit border crossings by land, sea or air.
“There’s a high demand for smuggling services and a low risk of detection for the criminals involved, especially for those at the heart of the networks,” says Samantha Munodawafa, a crime prevention expert at UNODC’s Human Trafficking and Migrant Smuggling Section.
Despite significant political attention and global efforts to combat this crime, the ringleaders of transnational smuggling networks continue to flourish with impunity, while migrants are increasingly turned back at borders, deported or die.
“It’s time to assess the systems and approaches that countries currently have in place to prosecute cases of migrant smuggling,” says Munodawafa.“We need to determine who to investigate and charge to effectively combat the crime.”
UNODC research shows that the ringleaders of migrant smuggling networks, who coordinate the crime and make significant profits, are rarely successfully pursued by authorities.
The bosses are usually not physically involved in bringing migrants across borders, so they face less risk of detection.
Claire Healy, Coordinator of the UNODC Observatory on Smuggling of Migrants, which provides up-to-date data on global smuggling trends, says the majority of people arrested and prosecuted are the “low-level players” in the smuggling operations.
“These are the drivers, guides, or navigators of vessels. These people are more visible, easier to apprehend - and easier to replace by organized criminal networks behind migrant smuggling,” she says.
While some authorities consider such arrests to be a successful outcome of their anti-migrant smuggling strategies, UNODC is urging states to look at the “bigger picture”.
“We need to ask whether such cases can really lead to the disruption of organized criminal groups who direct smuggling operations and the seizure of their assets. If not, they simply adapt and continue to perpetrate the crime,” says Healy.
The crime prevention expert adds there are even cases where smuggled migrants and refugees themselves are prosecuted.
“Sometimes they agree to navigate a vessel or play some other role in the smuggling process in return for free passage or a reduced price for their own travel. Or they are coerced into committing a criminal act.”
An understanding of the structure of migrant smuggling networks, their modus operandi and the various functions of the individual people involved, is essential to effectively address this crime and decide who to prosecute, explains Samantha Munodawafa.
To facilitate information sharing and promote cooperation on this topic, UNODC is bringing together around 500 crime prevention and criminal justice experts, as well as members of international and non-governmental organizations, from around 120 countries for next month’s Working Group on the Smuggling of Migrants.
A paper, prepared by UNODC to support the Working Group, provides information and suggestions for actions in line with the provisions of the UN’s Migrants Protocol to assist authorities that have to deal with the complex issues related to charging people with the crime of migrant smuggling.
The UNODC paper contains a detailed explanation of the smuggling enterprises, the different functions, and the business models they adopt.
“Our discussions during the Working Group meeting will focus on making sure criminal investigations are targeting the right people,” she says.
“We’ll be exchanging on States’ approaches in determining who is and who is not a migrant smuggler, and whether the penalties being given are proportional to the specific role the offending person plays.”
Migrant smugglers can range from individuals making a modest profit from a limited smuggling market within specific areas, to large, sophisticated organizations making significant profits from global migrant smuggling activities.
UNODC studies have established that “coordinators or organizers” have the overall responsibility for the operation and work with “recruiters” who advertise migrant smuggling services and may also collect fees.
“Transporters and guides” are on the ground to guide and transfer migrants through one or more countries and across borders.
It is the job of the “spotters” to warn about upcoming law enforcement checks while the “enforcers” keep order during the operation, at times using threats and violence.
The delegates of the Working Group, under the guidance of its current co-chairs, are expected to identify and adopt a series of recommendations on how they can enhance their related efforts.
The Working Group on the Smuggling of Migrants is the principal forum within the UN system for discussion and exchange of expertise on the crime of migrant smuggling. It was established to facilitate exchange between national criminal justice experts and other relevant officials from the countries that have committed themselves to implement the UN’s Migrant Smuggling Protocol. More than 150 states are parties to this international instrument.
