People smuggling

Further Criminalizing People Smuggling Will Not Work

THE NEW YORK Declaration which was the centerpiece of a much-vaunted U.N. summit on refugees paid scant attention to one of the most potent vectors in large-scale irregular migration: the role of smugglers.

Human smuggling is now estimated to be one of the largest global illicit markets, with a value of some $157 billion annually. In Europe’s migration crisis, for example, EUROPOL estimates that upwards of 90 percent of the people who arrived in Europe in 2015 used a smuggler, paying them an average of between $3,000 and $6,000 for their journey. Smugglers’ practices of overloading boats and using unseaworthy vessels are largely accountable for the nearly 10,000 people who have died in the central Mediterranean in the last three years.