Migrant Smuggling Data and Research

north, but also within the continent, while often adapting to conditions on the
ground – primarily those related to immigration enforcement controls or reports
of criminal activity, at varying costs and relying on a wide range of methods.
Overland journeys pose specific challenges, including not only environmental
exposure but the potential for interactions with criminal groups and authorities
whose actions play a decisive role on migrant safety and well-being.
Review of data on migrant smuggling
Official data on migrant smuggling as occurring in the Americas are scant
at best. Gathering reliable, recent and comprehensive data – particularly of the
kind involving criminalized, illicit activities – is challenging for several reasons.
First of all, the very clandestine nature of the practice reduces the possibility
of systematically collecting information. Data that could potentially provide
perspectives on the facilitation of migrant smuggling in the region tends to
be embedded in the larger body of irregular migration statistics. Across the
continent, State organisms in charge of migration collect numbers pertaining to
irregular border crossing attempts, immigration-related arrests and deportations,
yet do not disaggregate data pertaining to smuggling-initiated or related
transits. Furthermore and as previously outlined, there is no official, centralized
mechanism in Latin America that collects and/or addresses reports concerning
the disappearance or death of migrants in transit that could also allow drawing
informed conclusions on the connection of these incidents to smuggling related
practices. In fact, it is often only in the context of migrant tragedies – such as the
murder of 72 men and women presumed to be migrants in transit in the town
of San Fernando, Tamaulipas, Mexico in 2010 – that concerted efforts to collect
detailed information pertaining to smuggling have been carried out, although
the data are not always released to the public, neither for research or analytical
purposes (Casillas, 2010a).
Data collection on smuggling flows is not systematically nor centrally
performed. Official figures on irregular migration in countries across the
Americas are on occasion accessible to the public online, 110 but its quality is
often questionable. Methodologies are not explained; databases and numbers
are hard to access; websites present outdated information or have not been
updated for long periods of time. The scrutiny over migrant rights’ violations
that multiple government agencies across the continent have faced may also
play a part on their reluctance to disclose or fully disseminate information. In
the case of Mexico, there have been attempts on the part of the State to collect
110
Refer to www.politicamigratoria.gob.mx/es_mx/SEGOB/Boletines_Estadisticos or www.paisano.gob.mx/
index.php/component/content/article/65-estadisticas
278
11. Latin America