Current_Trends_and_Related_Challenges_web

Current Trends and Challenges
destination country — work that is often referred
to as ‘dirty, difficult and dangerous’ and that the
local population in the destination country is
unwilling or unable to fill. Given the type of work
involved, labour migration is often dominated by
young male migrants who have the physical ability
and sometimes the training and skill to carry out
the physically demanding types of work.
It is important to emphasize that irregular
migration and the smuggling of migrants
frequently involve women. Many sources point to
a growing feminization of migration in Asia, both
regular and irregular. Female labour migration
traditionally involves employment in such sectors
as domestic service, hospitality, entertainment
and the sex industry, but the motivations and
circumstances that drive the smuggling of women
are increasingly complex.
Although the smuggling of unaccompanied
migrants remains a phenomenon that is not well
explored, the available literature contains ample
examples of minors being smuggled independently
of other relatives. In some cases, the smuggling
of minors is a form of labour migration that
likely will lead to the exploitation and trafficking
of children. The smuggling of unaccompanied
minors to industrialized countries, on the other
hand, is sometimes used as a way to gain asylum
and refugee status in the destination country and
that, once the minor has been accepted, other
relatives, too, can join the minor in the host
country.
Depending on the specific push factors in
the country of origin, the profile of smuggled
migrants may be influenced by ethnicity, religion,
political opinion, language, culture, membership
of a particular social group and/or location. This
is particularly the case when migrants flee from
targeted or localized discrimination and violence
that affects some communities and individuals
but not others.
6.4 Smuggling methods and routes
The complexities of the push and pull factors
that prompt and foster irregular migration in
Asia also explain the diverse and often circuitous
routes used to smuggle migrants. A great variety
of methods to smuggle migrants by land, air and
sea have been identified. The smuggling methods
involve both covert operations in which migrants
are concealed and transported in ways to prevent
their detection by border officials as well as overt
smuggling methods in which smugglers and
smuggled migrants make no attempt to conceal
their identity, whereabouts and movements.
6.4.1 Smuggling methods
The method employed to smuggle migrants
depends on a myriad of variables, which include
geography, porous borders, border controls,
border fortifications, availability of public and
private transportation, the skills and knowledge
of local smugglers, the involvement of corrupt
government officials, the need to acquire and
present fraudulent travel or identity documents
and the funds available to smuggled migrants
and their families. Smugglers often offer a choice
between cheaper and less convenient methods
of smuggling as well as faster, more sophisticated
and more expensive avenues.
The smuggling of migrants by air, usually involving
commercial airlines, is the fastest, safest and
perhaps most effective way of smuggling migrants.
The formalities associated with air travel,
however, necessitate the possession of travel or
identity documents that need to be presented at
check-in and immigration controls at embarkation
and destination points. While there are reported
instances in which these controls are avoided by
bribing or colluding with government officials
or airline personnel, many if not most cases of
airborne smuggling involve fraudulent documents,
including genuine documents obtained through
fraudulent means and look-alike passports.
The costs associated with the production and
acquisition of such fraudulent documents, the
costs for airfares and the high demand for fast
and effective smuggling methods explain the
high fees charged by smugglers for smuggling by
air. This also explains why sophisticated methods
of smuggling are more commonly employed by
more well-to-do migrants. Nonetheless, migrant
smuggling by air is not always an option even
for those who can afford it. Smuggled migrants
by air often receive extensive coaching and are
instructed on how to present themselves and
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