Human trafficking

The difference between human trafficking and smuggling

Human Trafficking and smuggling are far apart, but most people tend to believe that there is no difference. Human Trafficking can be either a commercial sex act that is induced by force, fraud, or coercion, or in which the person induced to perform such an act has not attained 18 years of age. It can also be the recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, or obtaining of a person for labor or services through the use of force, fraud, or coercion for the purpose of subjection to involuntary servitude, peonage, debt bondage, or slavery.

Trafficking is an exploitation-based offense against a person and does not require movement across borders or any type of transportation.

Human smuggling on the other hand, is the importation of people into the United States involving the deliberate evasion of immigration laws. This offense includes bringing illegal aliens into the United States, as well as, the unlawful transportation and harboring of aliens already in the United States. Smuggling is a crime against the integrity of the United States’ borders. Smuggling requires movement within and around borders.