Current_Trends_and_Related_Challenges_web

Current Trends and Challenges
1. Introduction
1.1 Background
The smuggling of migrants is a crime that
challenges many countries around the world.
Driven by profit-seeking criminals, it involves
“the procurement, in order to obtain, directly or
indirectly, a financial or other material benefit, of
the illegal entry of a person into a State Party of
which the person is not a national or a permanent
resident”. 1
The United Nations Protocol against the Smuggling
of Migrants by Land, Sea and Air (Smuggling
of Migrants Protocol) obliges States parties to
criminalize specific conduct related to migrant
smuggling and thus to capture all those involved
in any aspect of the offence or related offences.
Additionally, the criminalization of the following
conduct is required by article 6 of the Smuggling
of Migrants Protocol:
• producing a fraudulent travel or identity
document; procuring, providing or possessing
such a document, when committed for
the purpose of enabling the smuggling of
migrants;
• enabling a person who is not a national or a
permanent resident to remain in the State
concerned without complying with the
necessary requirements for legally remaining
in the State;
• attempting to commit the offence of migrant
smuggling or related offences;
• participating as an accomplice to a migrant
smuggling offence or related offences; and
• organizing or directing migrant smuggling or
related offences.
In Asia, the smuggling of migrants is a particularly
complex but prominent issue. Migrant smuggling
occurs within subregions, between them and to
countries not in Asia. Countries in Asia can be
at the same time countries of origin, transit and
destination. Smugglers facilitate the irregular
migration of persons driven by a variety of reasons
to travel out of their country: better prospects
for employment and higher wages, better
living conditions, access to education, family
reunification, fleeing persecution and violence or
seeking protection and the prospect of asylum.
There is a great variety of routes and methods
used by smugglers, who are able to adapt quickly
to changing circumstances.
The adoption of the Smuggling of Migrants
Protocol in 2000, supplementing the Convention
against Transnational Organized Crime, 2 marked
a milestone in the development of international
responses to this phenomenon and provides a
widely accepted benchmark for criminal justice
systems. When signing the Smuggling of Migrants
Protocol, States agree to comprehensively
criminalize the smuggling of migrants, institute
mechanisms for law enforcement and judicial
cooperation, work to prevent the smuggling of
migrants and to protect the rights of smuggled
migrants.
As the guardian of the Convention against
Transnational Organized Crime, the Smuggling of
Migrants Protocol and the Protocol to Prevent,
Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons,
especially Women and Children, 3 the United
Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC)
promotes global adherence to these instruments
and assists States parties in their efforts to
implement them. A prerequisite in responding
to the challenges is generating evidence on the
ever-changing smuggling operations that is used
to raise awareness and inform appropriate policy
development.
The UNODC Regional Office for Southeast Asia
and the Pacific administers a programme to
improve the evidence base and the sharing of
information on the smuggling of migrants and
to assist States towards increasing their capacity
to generate and use that information. As part of
this programme, the Regional Office conducts
research to fill information gaps regarding the
smuggling of migrants. This report is one in a
series of knowledge products the Regional Office
has produced. The programme on improving the
evidence base operates in support of and in close
coordination with the Bali Process on People
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