Human trafficking is a global phenomenon: approximately 700,000 composed mainly of women and children are involved in human smuggling across international borders annually for the purpose of involving them in the sex trade (Nelson, 2002). Primarily, those who are being forced and schemed to join the trade are women and children from Third World Countries where poverty is common and the lack of employment opportunities is prevalent. As a response to the rapid growth of human smuggling particularly the flesh trade, the European Union responded by creating laws and protocols that seeks to end the exploitation of minorities (Gandhi, 2004).
However, despite the concerted effort of governments’ worldwide, human smuggling organisations have been deeply embedded in the society so that fighting this organised crime is grueling and complicated. This paper seeks to evaluate the smuggling operation of organisations and the laws governing this activity. Moreover, an assessment of how laws particularly in the EU have been faring in bringing down this organised crime. Concurrently, the question of ending human smuggling among women, children and migrants will be evaluated through legal and sociological perspectives.
In this paper, the analysis of the attempts to deal with the problem of human smuggling will be discussed. Smuggling Operation: The Organisation Accordingly, smuggling is considered as one of the oldest profession in the world. When a country established boundaries and sought to legalize traffic across that certain nation, they established markets for the human smuggling as well as products (Arnowitz, 2001). The smuggling and trafficking of human beings involves illegal immigration and transnational criminal channels of different degrees of organization.
In this illegal activity, many smuggled humans willingly participate by others are coerced or duped while most of them are being exploited (sexually), violated and abused making human smuggling in its most destructive (Salt, 2000). Human smuggling is also considered to hamper the protection of many migrant labor force and their families. Human smuggling is connected with many other social dilemmas which include involuntary servitude; transnational organized crime; corruption; buying and selling human beings; sweatshops; fraudulent documents; and other crimes.
Most of the authorities are having difficulties in detecting and prosecuting human smuggling operations and the organisations behind such illegal activities. Because of the capability of global communications, it allows human smugglers to quickly change routes, nations of transit and of destination as well as change their schedules. In addition, the smugglers are now producing high quality counterfeit documents to support their illegal operations (Kyle and Koslowsky, 2001). Various authors have mentioned that smuggling of human beings take various forms of operations.
Studies recommend emerging patterns of increasing professionalization. Such pattern may differ by the destination and the type of smuggling. For instance, trafficking in the United States from Mexico represents the different patterns of smuggling. In the informal level, smuggles humans are helped by their friends and their families to traverse the boundaries. On one hand, in the slightly more organized form, local agents are being used to associate migrants to more formal human smuggling activities (Schloenhardt 2000).
Herein, the local contacts, which are mostly well known to the migrants, have the access on contacting people at the border to help the smuggled humans gain entry into the other boundaries. At the border, there are various types of services that are being offered, these include the transportation to interior destinations, assistance in crossing without inspection, safe houses and links to specific employers. At the routes of entry, smugglers rent documents. In most case, the illegal documents is retrieved and used again.
For a higher payment, the migrants tend to keep the documents for verification of their eligibility of lawful employment. The utilization of the forms and types of human smuggling operations (Smith, 1997) and activities differ by gender as well as financial resources. More often, human smugglers act like there are legitimate business people, which guarantee their services and agreeing to receive final payment when the migrant reaches the final location. Other trafficking/smuggling activities are far less benign. Human smugglers pack large amounts of migrants into small, unventilated spaces to cross boundaries or reach ports.
Fearing trepidation by border legal officers (Schloenhardt 2000), smugglers tends to left migrants without protection from the heat of the sun and water. As the fee for smuggling increase and migrants are having difficulties to pat all costs, the smugglers sell the smuggled humans to businesses who cover the payment in exchange for indentured labour. In one of its most destructive and struggling types, human trafficking can amount to virtual slavery, specifically for children and women who are forced into sexually exploitive jobs (Smith, 1997).
Protocols against Migrant Smuggling The problems of human smuggling and trafficking have been one of the most intense social dilemmas in the world. In this regard, authorities from national, international and global world have been trying to regulate policies and protocols against human smuggling. The protocols include the illegal migration taking place through air, land and sea. The main goal of this protocol is to prevent and eliminate illegal migration and to punish those people involved in the illegal operations (Brolan, 2002).