ICMPD-Review-2015

ICMPD Annual Report 2015
13
In Focus 2015
The legal definition of migrant smuggling is the paid
facilitation of a migrant’s crossing of a national bor der
illegally. This includes, among other things, driving
people across a border (drivers), providing a map
and set of directions for crossing on foot (guides),
arrang ing and/or captaining a boat journey (skippers),
or being paid to house an irregular migrant to facilitate
his or her crossing. Often it is still believed that
migrant smuggling and human trafficking are one
and the same, but this is a misperception.
Human trafficking is about recruiting and transferring
humans into exploitation. In the business of migrant
smuggling, migrants are not victims from the outset
but human clients, paying for a service. However,
many still believe that migrant smuggling and human
trafficking practices share the same networks, and
the smuggling study found that this is not necessarily
the case. The researchers observed that migrant
Relationships between different actors in migrant
smuggling networks (Source: Optimity Advisors)
smuggling is commonly practiced in a more horizontal
framework (rather than vertically organised), with smugglers
competing or cooperating together to provide
services for different portions of the route. Usually,
these services do involve a ‘manager’ or ‘coordi na tors’
that ensure the crossing at a particular section of the
route functions well, but there is no one individual or
one organisation controlling the entire migration process
of an individual migrant.
The idea that an irregular migrant pays one organization
a lump sum in their country of origin or departure to
get them from a country of origin to a country of des tination
is not the rule. Rather, migrants use services
of several smuggling networks or individual facil itators
along their way.