Human Trafficking vs. Migrant Smuggling: Why the Difference Matters

Human Trafficking vs. Migrant Smuggling: Why the Difference Matters

Along the US-Mexico border, the terms “human trafficking” and “migrant smuggling” are often used interchangeably in official discourse and portrayed as if the two are one and the same. But there are important differences.?

In our latest investigation, “The Geography of Human Trafficking on the US-Mexico Border ,” we analyze the ways in which different types of organized crime groups are involved in human trafficking and how this crime can overlap with migrant smuggling.?

Several factors distinguish human trafficking from human smuggling. ?

The first concerns agency.: In human trafficking cases, victims are exploited for labor services or commercial sex through force, fraud, or coercion, while human smuggling typically involves a person willingly seeking out transport services to another country.?


The nature of the crime and source of profits are also different. In human trafficking cases, the crime is committed against an individual, and traffickers gain from the exploitation of that victim. On the other hand, human smugglers earn money by facilitating the irregular entry or stay of migrants, and in doing so break state-imposed laws and regulations.?

The final distinguishing factor is transnationality. Migrant smuggling operations necessarily cross borders, transporting people fleeing insecurity, economic precarity, climate change, and other difficult circumstances. But human trafficking networks do not need to cross borders to facilitate their criminal activity. In fact, many victims are exploited in their home countries.? ?

Still, as one high-ranking official working with Interpol’s Human Trafficking and Migrant Smuggling Unit told us, “There are a lot of connections between these two crimes, and the smuggling of a person across the border may be a means to a different end as well.”?

Stay up to date on all of InSight Crime’s coverage of human trafficking along the US-Mexico border and across Latin America at insightcrime.org . And be sure to check out our latest investigation , which analyzes the connections between Mexico’s organized crime groups and human trafficking.?


要查看或添加评论,请登录

InSight Crime的更多文章

社区洞察

其他会员也浏览了