Migrant Smuggling Data and Research

smuggling within the wider frame of irregular migration as a market and
conceptualizes migrant smuggling as an illicit, profit-making activity. Depending
on the specific theoretical model applied, two ancillary overlapping approaches
may be further discerned: (a) analysis of migrant smuggling from a primarily
economic perspective as a business; and (b) understanding of migrant smuggling
as a basic criminal structure and security threat (Salt, 2000; Baird, 2013a). To
analyse the phenomenon, scholarly contributions that fall within this category
mostly focus on the organizational aspect of migrant smuggling: the structure
of the networks, the routes, the prices, the flows and trends, estimation of the
“stocks” and even the likelihood of capture (Baird, 2013a). The overall scope
adopted may be however quite broad and place the discussion within the global
context of the migration industry and its politico-historical background (ibid.).
The literature that has developed along this strand is vast. A major
limitation in the analysis provided has been the little consideration paid to the
input of the migrant, who is frequently perceived as a victim trapped and moved
around within a network of associates rather than a decision maker (UNODC,
2011). Next to this, there is a certain degree of imbalance in the geographical
focus. While ample has been written on the flows, trends, estimates and modus
operandi of the smuggling networks in the European Union’s southern external
borders and in particular the dramatic Mediterranean border crossings, less
attention has been paid to intra-European movements. Contributions mapping
and analysing the process of migrant smuggling from the south towards Western
European countries are relatively limited.
One of the earliest studies, carried out by Ulrich in 1995, focused on
migrant smuggling in the Nordic and Baltic countries by employing border
apprehensions and asylum data, among others. Among the most interesting
findings in terms of transport methods was the airlifting of 29 migrants via
helicopter from the Russian Federation into Poland (Ulrich, 1995). In a more
recent study focusing on Austria, Bilger, Hoffman and Jandl in 2006, followed a
market-oriented approach to analyse the structure and tactics of the smuggling
networks operative in the country. They concluded, among others, that Austria
was mainly acting as a transit country dominated by a multitude of providers
offering differentiated services (Bilger, Hoffman and Jandl, 2006). Research
conducted in Central and Eastern Europe revealed the continuously changing
patterns of migrant smuggling through Bulgaria, Hungary and Poland by means of
forged documentation, abuse of the asylum system and concealment in hidden
compartments in vehicles, as well as the organization of smuggling networks
into smaller, collaborating individual groups, which the analysts resembled to
an “octopus” – rather than a pyramid – structure (Futó, Jandl and Karsakova,
2005). In her study of the Netherlands, van Liempt traced the paths followed
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5. Europe