Smuggling of migrants and labour trafficking within the Greater Mekong Sub-Region

This chapter deals with two areas of crime usually regarded as distinct: the trafficking of labourers and the smuggling of migrants. In common parlance, the words “trafficking” and “smuggling” are often interchanged, but they are different processes. For this reason, when the international community designed the UN convention on transnational organized crime, the need to prohibit two independent offences was recognized. “Trafficking” defines conscious acts that lead to and create situations in which people are forced to work against their will, while “smuggling” is the act of assisting irregular migration, motivated by material or financial gain.

Related Subject(s): Drugs Crime and Terrorism