Human Trafficking vs Smuggling
Human trafficking and smuggling of persons are often confused and seen as the same thing. This is incorrect – they ARE different.
TRAFFICKING in persons is a violation of fundamental human rights.
PROTOCOL TO PREVENT, SUPPRESS AND PUNISH TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS, ESPECIALLY WOMEN AND CHILDREN, SUPPLEMENTING THE UNITED NATIONS CONVENTION AGAINST TRANSNATIONAL ORGANIZED CRIME states that:
"Trafficking in persons shall mean the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation. Exploitation shall include, at a minimum, the exploitation of the prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labour or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of organs.”
SMUGGLING does not usually involve the coercion or deception of the individual to be moved. Rather it is the transportation of an individual or group of persons across borders illegally with false or stolen documents. This consent is often conditional, that the intending migrant will consent to the facilitation of the smuggler within the scope of the activity.
PROTOCOL AGAINST THE SMUGGLING OF MIGRANTS BY LAND, SEA AND AIR UNITED NATIONS, 2000 (Article 3a)
The smuggling of migrants is defined as:
“"Smuggling of migrants" shall mean the procurement, in order to obtain, directly or indirectly, a financial or other material benefit, of the illegal entry of a person into a State Party of which the person is not a national or a permanent resident".
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