Human Smuggling

Human smuggling refers to the illegal transport of people across national boundaries. It includes both bringing migrants into a nation in a manner that deliberately violates immigration laws and harboring persons already living in a country and doing so for financial or other material gain. Human smuggling is a pervasive criminal activity that occurs around the globe and undermines national, state, municipal, and community economic stability. It is a human rights issue, as many people die or are injured as a result of the transport process. Women and girls especially suffer because of their vulnerability at the hands of smugglers. While exact numbers cannot be obtained given the clandestine nature of the activity, some information can be obtained by analyzing the smuggling activity in the ...