Migrant Smuggling Data and Research
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REPORT OVERVIEW<br />
Marie McAuliffe <strong>and</strong> Frank Laczko<br />
Globally, migrant smuggling receives a considerable amount of media,<br />
policy <strong>and</strong> public attention, but how much do we really know about it based on<br />
sound evidence? To what extent are data <strong>and</strong> research on migrant smuggling<br />
collected, reported <strong>and</strong> undertaken throughout the world? In the project from<br />
which this report stems, we set out to answer these questions by working with<br />
researchers <strong>and</strong> analysts to review the current data <strong>and</strong> research on migrant<br />
smuggling globally. We did so for several reasons. First, migrant smuggling matters<br />
increasingly to migrants, enormously to States <strong>and</strong> is clearly critical to a great<br />
number of non-State actors, including unfortunately the smugglers <strong>and</strong> agents<br />
who operate in this illicit sector. It also matters to a range of others including<br />
non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that support migrants, international<br />
organizations working on migration, transnational crime, development <strong>and</strong><br />
human rights, as well as the media. Enhancing our underst<strong>and</strong>ing of migrant<br />
smuggling improves our ability to combat inequity, exploitation <strong>and</strong> abuse<br />
by helping craft effective responses aimed at supporting safe <strong>and</strong> orderly<br />
migration policies <strong>and</strong> practices. The impacts of migrant smuggling can be many<br />
<strong>and</strong> varied but none more tragic than the deaths of people during migration,<br />
which tend to be heavily intertwined with unsafe, exploitative <strong>and</strong> unregulated<br />
migration practices often involving smuggling. The International Organization<br />
for Migration’s (IOM) latest global report on migrant fatalities, for example,<br />
reported over 60,000 dead or missing migrants worldwide since 1995 (Brian <strong>and</strong><br />
Laczko, 2016).<br />
Second, we know that as with many other areas of international migration<br />
<strong>and</strong> irregular migration especially (Clarke, 2000; Koser, 2010; Kraler <strong>and</strong> Reichel,<br />
2011), there is currently no data available on the extent of migrant smuggling<br />
globally. The lack of global data on migrant smuggling hinders comparative<br />
analysis, as well as the ability to inform the development of effective responses.<br />
We had a strong sense that data <strong>and</strong> research on migrant smuggling in some<br />
regions was being collected, undertaken <strong>and</strong> reported to a much greater degree<br />
than other regions, but it was unclear how much variation there was across the<br />
world, including in <strong>and</strong> around migrant smuggling “hotspots” such as across<br />
the south-west border between Mexico <strong>and</strong> the United States, the Aegean Sea<br />
<strong>Migrant</strong> <strong>Smuggling</strong> <strong>Data</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>Research</strong>:<br />
A global review of the emerging evidence base<br />
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