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Migrant smuggling report

by Mark Rowe

COVID-19 travel and movement restrictions are not stopping the movement of people fleeing conflict, human rights abuses, violence and dangerous living conditions, according to a report by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).

The UN agency says that the economic consequences of the pandemic are likely to lead to an increase in smuggling of migrants and trafficking in person flows from the most affected countries to more affluent destinations.

UNODC’s Research Brief looks at possible scenarios of how cross-border smuggling of migrants and trafficking in persons to North America and Europe may be affected by the COVID-19 crisis.

Across the Mediterranean, Sub Saharan African, North African, Middle Eastern and Asian migrants and refugees are caught between the need to flee conflicts and poverty, dangerous open sea waters, the reduced ‘Search and Rescue’ operation at sea and the risk of COVID-19 transmission in absence of basic health and hygiene conditions en route.

The living conditions of migrants and refugees en route and in refugee camps were of great concern for decades before COVID-19, the agency says. The diffusion of the pandemic and its consequences will likely endanger the life of these people even further.

Despite the lockdown in Europe and the stringent mobility restrictions the smuggling of migrants along the western and central Mediterranean smuggling routes continues not least because of continued conflicts in the region. The flow along the eastern Mediterranean route decreased, most likely affected by containment measures along the route.

The closure of land, sea and air borders, however, may result in more smuggling of migrants, the agency warns. People have an even greater need for the services of smugglers to cross borders. Closures and restrictions also often result in the use of more risky routes and conditions, and higher prices for smuggling services, exposing migrants and refugees to increased abuse, exploitation and human trafficking.

In addition, the global economic downturn bringing along a sharp increase in unemployment is likely to increase cross-border trafficking in persons from countries experiencing long-lasting drops in employment. The same trend could be observed during the global financial crisis of 2007 to 2010, when trafficking victims from countries particularly affected by prolonged high unemployment were increasingly detected in countries with a faster recovery.

The economic consequences of the lockdown to reduce the diffusion of the virus will likely result in lost jobs and increased poverty in a large segment of population in many countries, the report warns. As in the past, this will increase the risks for this people to be targeted by traffickers.

For the 30-page report, visit https://www.unodc.org/.

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