Migrant Smuggling Data and Research

Probably the best data available relating to migrant smuggling are the data
concerning the number of countries that have ratified the Smuggling Protocol.
Information on the number of countries who have ratified the United Nations
Convention against Transnational Organized Crime, and the two supplementary
Protocols (the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons,
Especially Women and Children, and the Protocol against the Smuggling of
Migrants by Land, Sea and Air) are easy to locate. However, it is much more
difficult to find reliable information on the extent to which countries have been
able to implement their obligations under these instruments or quantify migrant
smuggling.
Why is there such a paucity of reliable data on migrant smuggling? First,
official statistics tend to be fairly limited because they tend to only reflect the
number of persons apprehended or convicted for smuggling offences. As most
smugglers are usually not apprehended and/or prosecuted, this information
provides only a partial picture of smuggling operations. For example, only 18
people are currently serving a sentence in Australian prisons for a migrant
smuggling offence (Anderson, 2016), and yet migrant smuggling to Australia
has involved many thousands of asylum seekers and other migrants in recent
years. An example of the limitations of such data can be seen if we consider
the recent surge in arrivals to Europe through the Eastern Mediterranean route.
Despite indications that the majority of the approximated 850,000 migrants who
crossed the Eastern Mediterranean in 2015 used the services of smugglers, the
number of smugglers apprehended by authorities in Greece barely increased in
2015, including because unlike on other routes, smugglers did not necessarily
travel the short distances involved with migrants (see chapter 5 on Europe).
Law enforcement data also have to be interpreted with care; an increase in the
number of irregular migrants intercepted could reflect either more effective
border operations, or a real increase in smuggling, or both.
Second, as noted earlier, definitions of migrant smuggling can vary at
the national level, which makes it difficult to compare data between countries.
Another challenge mentioned by several authors is that authorities do not always
distinguish clearly between smuggling, trafficking and other forms of irregular
migration in the definitions that they use for data collection.
Third, there seems to be a reluctance among many States to share the
limited data that is collected. States often report that they are concerned about
making data on migrant smuggling public because of fears that such information
might be used by smugglers themselves (chapter 9). But there may be other
reasons why States are reluctant to release such data. Destination countries
wishing to reduce migrant smuggling may give greater priority to collecting
Migrant Smuggling Data and Research:
A global review of the emerging evidence base
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