Trafficking, Smuggling and Human Rights: Tricks and Treaties

This article runs through the provisions of the UN Trafficking Protocol and Migrant Smuggling Protocol. The author argues that the lack of substantive victim protection in the protocols indicates that for many governments, trafficking and smuggling are more issues of crime and border control than of human rights. On a practical level, she notes that the lack of victim protection will undermine law enforcement efforts as trafficked individuals are given little incentive to cooperate with government officials. She concludes by urging concentrated focus on the human rights of trafficked and smuggled people and greater efforts to address the roots of irregular migration. [Descriptors: Migration - Trafficking, International]