Human Trafficking and Human Smuggling: According Legal Implications and The Distinction

Human Trafficking and Human Smuggling:The Distinction and Legal Implications

1. introduction

Human smuggling and trafficking are receiving attention across the world lately, these two types of transnational criminal networks are growing at the fastest pace and are thought to be the most lucrative type of criminal activity, the second one is only to drug trafficking smugglers and human trafficking, it is  important to keep it in mind that even tough most People think that human smuggling and human trafficking are the same, in fact they do not mean the same concept. Therefore, it is very important to differentiate between these two things so as not to be confused. This has been explained in the smuggling protocol and trafficking protocol. Before the emergence of this protocol, many expert assumed that there was no difference between the two things, even after the ptotocol had been published, several parties still maintained that there was no difference in human smuggling and human trafficking.

a) human trafficking

Human trafficking is an illegal business that often occurs in several poor cuntries that has political imbalance. Trafficking victims are intially lured by criminal gengs with promising offers such as large monetary rewards and even a better life in the country on offer, even tough they ar just victims of trade to generate income for the perpetrators. some of the common factor that occur in huan trafficking are the use of violence, intimidation and violence to subdue trafficking victims either for sexual purposes or forced labor. After putting human trafficking victims under their control, they will resort to violence both physically and mentally just to meet their financial needs. UNICEF even has records showing that more than 200.000 children are enslaved in West and Central Africa, but most coutries already have anti-human trafficking laws.

b) human smuggling 

Human smuggling is a criminal activity carried out through emigration from developing countries to developed countries, where someone smuggles or transports other people illegally across international borders. From the definition above, human smuggling involves someone who is not a citizen of a country paying another person to help him enter the destination country without valid immigration documents. There are several factors why people smuggle people, such as wanting to escape from persecution in their country or from war in their country. and most of the destination countries are countries with light penalties for illegal immigration violations, where several African countries are also destination countries due to the economic prosperity in South Africa and Botswana which continues to attract the attention of illegal migrants.