Migrant Smuggling Data and Research

annually. According to the South Korean Ministry of Unification, approximately 80
per cent of the 1,894 North Koreans who arrived in South Korea in 2004 engaged
brokers. The US State Department further estimated that between 30,000 and
50,000 refugees from North Korea entered China; other organizations estimated
anywhere between 100,000 and 300,000 (Tanaka, 2008).
Table 10.1: North Korean arrivals in South Korea
Source: The South Korean Ministry of Unification. Available from www.unikorea.go.kr/content.
do?cmsid=1440, accessed 4 December 2015.
The biggest destination country in North-East Asia is Japan. According to
Japanese authorities, among those who were deported in 2014, 844 migrants
had entered illegally, which made up about 8 per cent. The number has been
declining from 3,867 in 2010 and the proportion of “illegal entry” in the violation
of Immigration Control Acts has also been decreasing. Therefore, the Japanese
Immigration Bureau evaluates that “it is considered that the countermeasures
to prevent illegal entry have been quite effective” (Japan Immigration Bureau,
2014). In addition, 6,702 migrants were caught in situations of illegal work, most
of them Chinese and Filipino nationals (ibid.).
Smuggling routes
The United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime (UNODC) identified the
overall smuggling routes in East Asia. Figure 10.1 has been updated from the
UNODC report. North Korean smuggling routes have particularities not captured
by the UNODC analysis, as can be seen in Figure 10.2 (Song, 2013).
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10. North-East Asia