Current_Trends_and_Related_Challenges_web

Migrant Smuggling in Asia
to Europe by air or overland on routes that usually
lead via Turkey or Eastern Europe. 64
The smuggling of Bangladeshi migrants involves
transit and destination countries in South and
South-East Asia and smuggling by land, sea and/
or air to Europe. 65 The smuggling of migrants from
Nepal is mostly aimed at India and destinations
in West Asia. Labour recruitment agencies have
an important role in facilitating the irregular
migration of Bangladeshi and Nepali workers. 66
Information on the smuggling of migrants from
or into the Maldives is limited. 67 The Maldives
is a transit country for some irregular migrants
from South and West Asia en route to Europe.
According to Maldivian authorities, the free
tourist visa scheme of the Maldives may facilitate
irregular transit migration. 68 The Maldives is also
a destination country for migrant workers from
Bangladesh. 69
3.4.2 Fraudulent travel and identity documents
The smuggling of South Asian migrants by air
usually involves the use of fraudulent travel
or identity documents that are used to board
international flights and pass through immigration
controls in transit and destination countries.
Fraudulent documents include passports or visas
but also birth certificates and other identification
papers that can be forged and altered more easily
and that are then used to fraudulently obtain
travel or identity documents. 70
Studies into the smuggling of migrants from the
Indian States of Tamil Nadu, Punjab and Haryana
have uncovered a range of methods used to forge
travel and identity documents, including photo
substitution, substitution of passport jackets, use
of forged Indian and foreign passports and visas,
fake ‘Emigration Check Not Required’ stamps and
false departure stamps. A particularly common
method is for smugglers to obtain genuine
passports for other nationals and replace the
personal particulars page with details of the
smuggled migrants. In some cases, passports
are dismantled and re-stitched not only to insert
personal details but also to remove information,
such as a refusal stamp, or to include information,
such as a fraudulent visa. Other methods involve
swapping a boarding pass in the transit lounge
of an airport, impersonations and the use of
documents issued in the name of other persons. 71
Wennappuwa town in the North Western
Province of Sri Lanka has been singled out as one
location in which many fraudulent documents
are manufactured. Fraudulent documents are
also sold in the coastal town of Entomb, while
many Tamils obtain documents in Wellawatte,
a southern district of Colombo. There, migrant
smugglers sometimes use language schools to
issue fraudulent documents. More sophisticated
and specialized forgery services are said to be
available in Pettah, Colombo. 72
Labour recruitment agencies often are involved
in facilitating irregular migration. For example,
brokers and labour recruiters in Nepal are said to
send underaged workers abroad by substituting
the photo in a passport issued to an adult or by
obtaining fraudulent age certificates from local
authorities to apply for a passport. 73
3.4.3 Corruption and bribery
Corruption and bribery are common in the
smuggling of migrants in South Asia, as in other
regions. Available literature shows that in
Bangladesh, for instance, bribery is used to obtain
falsified birth certificates from local authorities. 74
Reports from Sri Lanka suggest that government
officials are bribed for genuine documents. 75
Information from Nepal suggests that officials
working at the airport are sometimes bribed to
obtain the required emigration documentation. 76
3.4.4 Smuggling to and through South Asia
India is the primary transit country for smuggled
migrants from Nepal, many of them migrant
workers. Most of them enter India overland
to avoid the more stringent border controls at
Kathmandu airport. Despite the open-border
policy and thus free movement in crossing the
Nepal–India border, migrant smugglers use
many of the smaller border checkpoints to avoid
questioning and detection. 77 Once in India,
irregular Nepali labour migrants depart by air for
a chosen destination. Many of the major Indian
cities, including Delhi, Bangalore, Chennai and, in
particular, Mumbai, are typically used as a transit
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