Is There a Distinction Between Human Trafficking and the Smuggling of Migrants - Essay Example

Is There A Distinction Between Human Trafficking And The Smuggling Of Migrants? Name Institution Course Date Is There A Distinction Between Human Trafficking And The Smuggling Of Migrants? Each year, thousands of immigrants are moved from one region to another by highly organized international trafficking and smuggling groups in very inhumane and dangerous conditions. Each year, an estimated 2.45 million people become victims of human trafficking and are being exploited for monetary gains (Chandran 2011, p. 11). Similar high number is seen with the smuggling. Although there is no global statistics on the number of migrants that are smuggled each year because this form of crime is committed underground, the scantly available information indicates that about 55,000 African migrants are smuggled to Europe each year while approximately 3 million people cross through the Mexican border into the U.S. illegally (Zhang 2007, p. 3). The 3 million persons that illegally enter the U.S. are believed to be getting assistance from smugglers (Mahdavi 2013, p. 2). However, the debate on migrant situation has been sparkled by the current migrant crisis being experienced in Europe as hundreds of thousands of migrants are moving from Africa and parts of Asia into European countries either in search of job opportunities or as asylum seekers while others are smuggled or trafficked for monetary gains (Salt 2000, p. 5). Even as the migrant crisis continue, the media has been in recent times using terms “smuggling” and “trafficking” interchangeably. This leaves ordinary people wondering as to whether there are differences between human trafficking and migrant smuggling. This paper analyzes distinctions between human trafficking and migrant smuggling and describes the policy implications of the differences. Distinctions between Human Trafficking and Migrant Smuggling The past few years has seen an increased focus on the immigrant smuggling. The past few years has seen a lot of migrants from Central America try to move into the U.S. through its southern borders (Thachuk 2007, p. 16). Similar influx of migrants is being witnesses in the Mediterranean Sea, where many migrants from Northern Africa and West Africa are crossing with boats in large numbers to Europe and Australia. This has created a situation where much attention has been drawn to human smuggling (Hepburn 2013, p. 15). Despite the increased focus on human smugglers, policy outlets and the media continue to confuse people with regards to their usage of the terms trafficking and smuggling and this pose a serious danger to policy making. According to the United Nations (UN), migrant smuggling is a term used to refer to procuring an illegal entry of people into a country in which those persons are not residents or nationals for material or financial benefits (Ruddock 2001, p. 34). In other words, immigrant smuggling involves moving individuals across borders upon the request of the migrants who pay smugglers in return for enabling them cross the borders illegally. Kaye (2003, p. 21) estimates indicate that migrant smuggling has become a multimillion dollar industry as the industry reportedly generates about $7 billion every year. Geddes (2005, p. 325) observed that, despite migrant smuggling being an illegal business, the industry employs millions of people that depend on smuggling as their source of livelihood. By contrast, human trafficking is an act that involves the exploitation of the people being trafficked. According to the UN, human trafficking involves recruiting, harbouring and transporting individuals through coercion, threat or fraud with the aim of exploiting them for monetary or material gains (Andrees 2008, p. 2; Das and Obi 2008, p. 17). Exploitation in this case may come in different forms, namely forced slavery, sexual exploitation, servitude, organ removal or slavery, note Lee (2007, p. 16). In other words, human trafficking involves moving persons from one place to another without their permission and exploits them either along the way or at the final destination. Although the current definition of human trafficking and migrant smuggling shows clear distinction between the two terms, these differences between trafficking and smuggling are relatively new. For instance, it is noted that, in 1994, human trafficking was defined by the International Labour Organization (2005, p. 1) as the illegal movement of people across international borders, voluntarily for the benefit of the traffickers. This definition is evidently the same as the definition that is currently in use for the term migrant smuggling. However, before this in 1990s, human trafficking had almost similar definition as the one currently in use (Gallagher 2010, p. 91). Nonetheless, for purposes of preventing, suppressing and punishing human traffickers, the Protocol cemented this definition (O’Brien 2007, p. 8). The new definition by the Protocol defines human trafficking as the illegal transportation of people against their will through the use of force, coercion, deception, threat or force (Gallagher 2001, p. 976). Despite the confusion that is being created by the media regarding human trafficking and migrant smuggling, it is important to understand that the two terms have certain distinctions that are often overlooked by the media or policymakers. The first and most important distinction between human trafficking and migrant smuggling is consent. In migrant smuggling, the consent of the people being smuggled is sought by the smugglers (Neske 2006, p. 122). This implies that only those who agree to be smuggled are moved to a destination that they wish to reach with the help of the smugglers whom in return are paid by the individuals being smuggled. As such, in migrant smuggling, no one is being forced, threatened or coerced by the smugglers. Such is the situation being witnessed in the Mediterranean regions where a huge number of migrants are seeking the assistance of smugglers to facilitate their movement across the sea to Europe. Human trafficking, on the other hand, does not necessarily involve seeking the consent of the person being trafficked (McCreight 2006, p. 106). Even in circumstances where the individual being trafficked has consented initially, their consent to trafficking is rendered meaningless immediately the traffickers take charge of the person as the individuals are coerced, threatened, or subjected to abusive or deceptive acts by the traffickers. In most cases, people being trafficked are sometime subjected to torture in order for them to heed to the wishes of the traffickers, according to Jandl (2007, p. 17). The second distinction exists with regards to the relationship between the smuggler and the people being smuggled and that of the traffickers and the people being trafficked. In migrant smuggling, the relationship between the smuggler and the individual being smuggled ends immediately the person reaches his or her destination (McCurry 2004, p. 1393). For example, if a person agrees to be smuggled across the Mediterranean from North Africa to Britain or Australia, the relationship that existed between the migrant being smuggled and the smugglers ends as soon as the migrant reaches Britain or Australia. As such, the smuggler does not care about what happens to the migrant that has been smuggled beyond facilitating their movements (O’Neill 2011, p. 101). In human trafficking, the relationship between the traffickers and the persons being trafficked usually extend even after the person has reached the destination. This is because human traffickers normally maintain control over the people they traffic for purposes of exploiting and benefiting from them either financially or materially. In fact, Martin and Miller (2000, p. 970) noted that exploitation by traffickers is usually greatest at the point of destination or when the person is on a journey to the place where they are being taken to for exploitation. There are different forms of exploitation that persons being trafficked are subjected to. Firstly, a lot of people trafficked are subjected to sexual exploitation by the traffickers. Koslowski and Kyle (2001, p. 2) indicates that up to 84% of victims of human trafficking in West and Central Europe are trafficked for sexual exploitation. In this case, unlike smuggling where the relationship ends up the person reaches the destination, trafficking involves the victims being put under the control of the traffickers that subject them to sexual exploitation and forcing them into prostitution for the benefits of the traffickers (Alvanez and Alessi 2012, p. 142). Some victims of trafficking are subjected to hard labour and slavery upon reaching their destinations among other forms of exploitations, according to Andrees and Besler (2009, p. 24). The third key distinction between human trafficking and migrant smuggling is transnationality. On one hand, migrant smuggling is always transational. This means that smugglers always transport persons across national borders (Mountz 2003, p. 622). For instance, in smuggling, a person must be moved across borders. It is important, however, to note that, although transnational crime is often linked to hierarchical organized crime structures which usually dictate the operations, smuggling does not follow a hierarchical structure, but instead works on individual level or follow loose structured networks (Laczko and Thompson 2000, p. 14). In this respect, the smuggling operations are usually conducted by autonomous actors though maintain circulatory element. For instance, smugglers usually help a migrant cross the borders to another country. This is followed by the migrant helping their relatives, the relatives who then come back to the smuggler to emigrate (Hua 2011, p. 52). As such, for purposes of retaining business, the smuggler is usually encouraged to execute his/her job perfectively. Human trafficking, on the other hand, occurs whether a person is moved from one country to another or within the same country (De Stefano 2007, p. 83). This implies that, in trafficking, traffickers do not necessarily have to move a person to across borders. Additionally, unlike smuggling that does not assume a highly organized crime structures, trafficking usually takes a highly organized crime structure. In fact, trafficking usually follows traditional hierarchical structure of organized crime and involves either a single individual or a group of persons issuing orders (Chapkis 2003, p. 923). The adoption of centralized structure in trafficking allows traffickers to facilitate the illegal relocation of human beings through harbouring, recruitment and transportation, which exemplifies trafficking nature. The other key distinction between smuggling and trafficking is the source of profit. In migrant smuggling, profits are generates by the smugglers through facilitation or transportation of people illegally to another country (Amir and Beeks 2006, p. 44). By contrast, in trafficking, the traffickers derive their profits from exploitations, such as forcing the people being trafficked to prostitution, forced labour or slavery note Anderson and Rogaly (2005, p. 12). From the analysis, it become apparent that human trafficking is more inhumane than smuggling because trafficking is not just involuntary, but also involves exploiting the victims being trafficked. This is unlike smuggling that is voluntary and does not involve forcing or coercing a person (Dottridge and Jordan 2012, p. 66). Implications As indicated in the literature, there has been continued confusion as to what constitute migrant smuggling and human trafficking. In most cases, for many years, migrant smuggling and trafficking have been used interchangeably to mean the same thing (Bales and Lize 2007, p. 24). As a matter of fact, the media has increased this confusion in the recent times following the migrant and refugee crisis that is being witnessed in Europe by using the terms to mean the same thing. However, the International Trade Union Confederation (2009, p. 6) argues that this is dangerous implications on policymaking. The discussion has shown that smuggling and trafficking are two different things that should be tackled using different policies. As such, confusing the terms and taking them to mean the same thing is likely to result in the creation of inappropriate policies to deal with these issues. Nonetheless, the Protocol made a good move in 2003 when it came up with a distinct definition for human trafficking and smuggling as this would help in developing appropriate policies to prevent, suppress and punish human traffickers and smugglers. Conclusion Migrant smuggling and human trafficking has been around for many years. Every year, hundreds of thousands of people are moved by highly organized international trafficking and smuggling groups in very inhumane and dangerous conditions. However, creating an effective policy to deal with smuggling and trafficking has never been easy because the existing confusion of what constitute trafficking and smuggling. However, as described above, trafficking and smuggling are distinct mainly with regards to consent, exploitation, relationship, transnationality and source of profit. Therefore, when developing policies to address smuggling and trafficking, it is important that these distinctions be taken into account. References Alvanez, M., & Alessi, B 2012, ‘Human trafficking is more than sex trafficking and prostitution. Implications for social work’ Affilia vol. 27 no. 2, pp. 142-152. Amir, D., & Beeks, K 2006, Trafficking and the Global Sex Industry. Lexington Books, Lanham, MD. Anderson, B., & Rogaly, B 2005, Forced labour and migration to the UK. TUC, London. 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