Migrant Smuggling in Asia - United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime

of document fraud, method of payment and fees
paid, the <strong>in</strong>�uence of ethnic groups and whether
the smugglers had any connection to other crim<strong>in</strong>al
�elds. �e comb<strong>in</strong>ation of elements led to the
identi�cation of three ma<strong>in</strong> typologies (with various
sub-categories) of migrant smuggl<strong>in</strong>g, each of which
<strong>in</strong>volves dist<strong>in</strong>ct forms of organization, migrants and
risk. �e three typologies are (see Neske, 2006, pp.
138–152):
�� “Individual smuggl<strong>in</strong>g with a high degree of selfresponsibility”:
In these cases, <strong>in</strong>dividuals travel
on their own, mostly legally and by public
transport. At a certa<strong>in</strong> po<strong>in</strong>t <strong>in</strong> their journey,
they cannot proceed without assistance so they
may engage the services of a local smuggler who
guides them across the border on foot, or get
assistance to rema<strong>in</strong> undetected from a taxi
driver or other service provider. �is type of
smuggl<strong>in</strong>g is described as “poverty smuggl<strong>in</strong>g”
as it is carried out by those who have no �nancial
or logistical options to try another way.
�� “Visa smuggl<strong>in</strong>g as a pure service”: In this category,
migrants seek the assistance of a service provider
(“travel agents”) to get a visa through fraudulent
means (for example, the service provider takes
care of the “cover” for the journey, such as
issu<strong>in</strong>g a fraudulent bus<strong>in</strong>ess <strong>in</strong>vitation). In this
category, visas are obta<strong>in</strong>ed at the start of the
journey, and migrants then travel <strong>in</strong>dependently.
�� “Pre-organized stage-to-stage smuggl<strong>in</strong>g”: In this
category, migrants conduct almost the entire
journey accompanied by smugglers. �e routes
may be the same as those used <strong>in</strong> the other
categories but the organization is di�erent, with
various “stage coord<strong>in</strong>ators” used along the entire
route. �ere are di�erent sub-types with<strong>in</strong> this
category, largely re�ect<strong>in</strong>g the motivation and
<strong>in</strong>tention of the smuggled migrants. �ese are:
�� In “stage to stage smuggl<strong>in</strong>g from crisis
areas”, the smuggler and migrants
typically come not only from the same
country, but the same region <strong>in</strong> that
country, and relatives or family members
may have <strong>in</strong>�uential positions among
the smugglers. �e fact that these
journeys <strong>in</strong>volve travel over thousands of
kilometres (not simply gett<strong>in</strong>g to a refugee
camp) re�ects the speci�c situation of
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