Migrant smuggling in Asia highly lucrative for criminal gangs: UN

Smuggling of migrants poses a major threat to Asia, generating an annual value of 2 billion U.S. dollars for criminal groups and leading to deaths and human rights abuses, said a UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) report released on Tuesday.

Criminal networks are creatively exploiting gaps between the demand for workers and regular migration, with smuggling fees to get to some destinations now reported as high as 50,000 U.S. dollars, according to the report.

The report explores the patterns, characteristics and levels of migrant smuggling in 28 states and territories in East, South, South-East and South-West Asia.

A significant number of migrants use smugglers to cross borders in order to seek a better life, only to end up in human trafficking situations.

Far away from home and working illegally, smuggled migrants have little ability to assert basic rights and become vulnerable to abuse, trafficking and exploitation, it said.

Southeast Asia continues to serve as an important source, transit and destination for migrant smuggling, with the majority of smuggling taking place within the region but with routes also reaching countries as far as Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the United States, according to the UNODC.

"The cross-border movement of people in Asia is expected to grow rapidly and at unprecedented levels, in part due to new infrastructure projects and the opening of borders," said Jeremy Douglas, Regional Representative of UNODC in Southeast Asia and the Pacific.

He noted that smuggled migrants are more difficult to identify among the increasing number of regular migrants that accompany regional integration.

Migrant smugglers operate in highly flexible networks and quickly adapt to changing circumstances, such as redirecting routes in response to increased border controls.

In addition, the production and use of fraudulent documents are widespread, Douglas said, adding people that make use of smugglers "face increased risks to their health and safety."

The UNODC called on countries to comprehensively address migrant smuggling, embedded in wider trafficking, migration and development policies - in line with the UN Convention on Transnational Organized Crime.

The report recommended strengthening data generation and understanding, and improving national laws and policies while protecting the rights of migrants, as well as building operational capacity at border crossings to identify, investigate and prosecute smuggling and trafficking networks, and the protection of victims.

This will require international cooperation and political will, as well as the development of affordable, accessible and safe avenues for legal migration, the report said. Endi