Migrants from the Horn of Africa continue to travel along the southern route towards South Africa and almost all of them use smugglers to get to their final destination. This RMMS briefing paper provides an update on the volume, trends and dynamics of mixed migration and migrant smuggling along this route. It offers new estimates on the volume of migration and the value of the illicit migrant smuggling economy from Ethiopia and Somalia to southern Africa and highlights many of the protection issues migrants and refugees face while being smuggled south. The research draws upon data from the RMMS Mixed Migration Monitoring Mechanism initiative (4Mi), through which field monitors conducted 398 interviews in South Africa, as well as additional interviews in southern Africa and secondary research.

This training material was developed in the framework of the project Fight against Trafficking in Human Beings - Phase 1 (THB/IFS/1), which was funded by the European Union under its Instrument for Stability with the aim to fight organised crime and trafficking in human beings (THB) in Azebaijan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Moldova and Turkey. The project was implemented in the period January 2013 to September 2014 by ICMPD (International Centre for Migration Policy Develpment) in partnership with FIIAPP (Fundación Internacional y para Iberoamérica de Administración y Políticas Públicas) and EF (Expertise France) and focused on the enhancement of national, regional and trans-regional law enforcement cooperation.

The years 2015-2016 saw an unprecedented increase in the numbers of people travelling by sea and overland along the migration route to the European Union (EU), with almost one and a half million people irregularly entering EU countries.This situation required frontline responders in these regions to be able to quickly identify and refer potential victims of trafficking in human beings (THB) among refugees, asylum applicants and migrants in an irregular situation. It also required the adoption of tailored protection and rehabilitation programmes for identified victims of trafficking among these people. This is particularly important for the protection of specific vulnerable groups, such as separated and unaccompanied children. The TRAM research assessment aims to contribute to the establishment of a solid knowledge base on this crucially important issue. It examines the incidence of trafficking in human beings and risk factors for THB in the context of the Balkan route and in destination countries. It also looks at the gaps, needs and challenges that exist in the identification, referral, protection and rehabilitation of victims of trafficking. The study found indications that trafficking and exploitation are a major cause of concern for migrants and refugees travelling along the Western Balkans route, yet the number of identified victims remains extremely low. The lack of statistical data is to a certain extent the result of a vicious circle, whereby if there is no evidence of trafficking cases among a certain group, the necessary resources are not mobilised to address THB and proactively identify cases, which in turn prevents the gathering of accurate statistics. The low number of identifications is also due to the lack of harmonisation and incorporation of anti-trafficking procedures into the first reception and asylum systems for new arrivals, leading to a disconnect between the two processes. The research also highlighted that in the context of the Balkan route, trafficking is often related to the migrant smuggling process, with exploitation occurring due to people being in debt to smugglers, and due to smugglers requesting increasing amounts of money for their services. The complexity of differentiating between the two distinct phenomena of smuggling of migrants and trafficking in human beings, and of understanding the points of convergence, contributes to making identification and referral procedures more difficult. From a migration policy perspective, the study found that increasingly restrictive border control policies and the lack of legal alternatives for onward movement play into the hands of unscrupulous smugglers, who use this opportunity to also perpetrate trafficking and other forms of exploitation, taking advantage of the vulnerable situation of migrants and refugees.

The manual is produced in the framework of the Prague Process Migration Observatory implemented through the “Prague Process: Dialogue, Analyses and Training in Action” (PP DATA) initiative, funded by the European Union and implemented by ICMPD in its capacity of Prague Process Secretariat. PP DATA aims at sustaining and further enhancing the cooperation established in the area of migration and asylum between the countries of the European Union, the Schengen Area, the Eastern Partnership, the Western Balkans, Central Asia, Russia and Turkey. The goal of this manual is to guide its users in developing and delivering training sessions covering ten key areas concerning combating trafficking in human beings. The manual provides content and technical implementation information for each session, as well as brief instructions on the process of teaching and useful insights about adult learning. The manual is developed to serve the anti-trafficking stakeholders from the participating countries of Prague Process. The Manual is a practical guide that can be adapted to fit the training needs of the participants. It can be used for in-house trainings, delivered by professionals with a certain level of training experience to an audience with no or basic knowledge on the topic of trafficking in human beings, or it can also be used for training-of-trainers programmes. Having in mind the diversity of the human trafficking phenomenon across the Prague Process region and the specificities of the national anti-trafficking responses, the manual is designed in a way that can be also adapted to any country-specific context. The information for the manual was collected through desk research of the available handbooks and manuals on the topic of combating trafficking in human beings, adding the knowledge and expertise of ICMPD Anti-trafficking Programme.

The approach of states to managing immigration and asylum relies to a significant extent on the assignment of categories to people entering from abroad and residing in the country. Among these categories are regular migrant, labour migrant, irregular migrant, asylum seeker, refugee, unaccompanied child, smuggled migrant and trafficked person. Each of these categories has a specific definition in national law, and so every person migrating into a country fits into one of these categories – or at least that is how we understand migration and migration policies. There are indeed many reasons why this categorisation is necessary – each category has specific rights attached to it, and describes the situation that each person is in. Those of us working on migration policy also apply these categories in order to guide the scope of our work. However, in responding to mixed migration flows to Europe during the past few years, this has been a challenge. Some people are experts on human trafficking, while others are experts on asylum and refugees. Other people are experts on irregular migration or migrant smuggling, while still others are experts on children in a migration context. Yet to comprehend these migratory movements, it is necessary to understand legislation, policy and practice in all of these areas, because the adults and children who travelled along the Balkan and Mediterranean routes to European Union (EU) countries during the past three years did not fit neatly into just one of these categories. In fact most of them fell under a number of categories at once. What has been referred to as the “politics of labelling” in the area of mixed migration – the politically loaded use of certain terms to elicit particular responses to groups of people – is usually discussed in relation to the choice as to whether to use the term “migrant” or “refugee” (Whitham, 2017). This highlights the sometimes artificial distinctions embedded within the language of migration and the use of “language, definitions and categorisations” to determine the rights and treatment afforded to different people (Dolan, 2017). Acknowledging that multiple categories can be applied to individual people in this context is problematic, because states and service providers, as well as researchers and policy advisors, depend on the application of these categories in order to make sense of their work. This paper examines the challenges, and some possible ways forward, in dealing with the nexus between asylum, migration management and combatting human trafficking in mixed migration contexts in general.

The Strength to Carry On: Resilience and Vulnerability to Trafficking among People Travelling along Migration Routes to Europe analyses the incidence of human trafficking among people travelling along migration routes to Europe; factors of resilience to trafficking and other abuses; and factors of vulnerability to trafficking and other abuses. The study covers the Eastern Mediterranean, Balkan and Central Mediterranean migration routes.The research findings indicate the significance of the context of the migration routes for people’s experiences: the geography of the routes; and the policies and practices applied during different periods in different places. Due to the lack of legal channels for migrating and seeking asylum, and the lack of possibilities to transit regularly along the routes, almost everyone who travels the routes uses migrant smuggling services, at least at some point. Migration policies and responses to the situation on the migration routes have focused largely on combating irregular movement and are characterised by border restrictions and fortification, which significantly increases the vulnerabilities of people using the routes. 69 potential trafficking cases were identified in the course of the research, and 14 cases of deprivation of liberty for extortion. A minority of these cases were officially identified by the authorities. People on the move are trafficked for sexual exploitation, labour exploitation and forced migrant smuggling. The study also shows that deprivation of liberty for extortion involves the abuse of a person’s rights in order to obtain financial or material benefits. The main modus operandi of traffickers in the context of the migration routes, regardless of whether or not they also provide migrant smuggling services, is abusing people’s position of vulnerability. This vulnerability arises from their need to use, and to pay for, migrant smuggling, due to the lack of alternatives for regular travel.

Smuggling and Trafficking in Central and Eastern Europe. The yearbook gives an overview of developments in the area of irregular migration, human smuggling and trafficking in the wider Central and Eastern European region in 2010. The information provided in the yearbook was collected through a questionnaire distributed to border agencies, ministries of the interior and other national authorities dealing with issues related to irregular migration. The data is directly obtained from states’ authorities and therefore provides authentic information as reported by the contact points. The country chapters summarise the developments in each of the countries or territories. After many years of decreasing numbers of apprehensions, the overall numbers of migration-related border apprehensions increased slightly in the region in 2010. While Greece and Turkey remained the countries reporting by far the most apprehensions, considerable numbers of apprehensions were also found in Albania as well as in Hungary. Citizens from Ukraine and the Russian Federation were often among the top citizenship groups apprehended for illegal entry or stay in the region. The number of human smugglers apprehended decreased, while the number of smuggled persons increased in the region. Also, the number of victims of trafficking increased in the region. The special topic of this year’s edition is detention of asylum seekers and migrants prior to deportation. The data provided in this yearbook provides a unique overview of practices and statistics on the detention of migrants in terms of the use of detention centres, numbers of persons in detention and maximum duration allowed for detaining migrants. The yearbook aims to support fact-based discussions on irregular migration and contribute to well-informed policy decisions.

A practical guideline for frontline workers

This guide is designed to support European Red Cross National Societies services to respond to trafficking in human beings. Building on and complementing the Migration Policy of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), the document provides additional guidance to assist and protect trafficked persons (but it is not itself a policy). It focuses mostly on human trafficking in relation to migration. However, victims can be trafficked either transnationally (crossing at least one international border) or domestically (within the borders of one country). The International Red Cross and Red Crescent (RCRC) Movement assists and protects all types of victims of trafficking, including persons who have been trafficked without crossing international borders. Working with and for vulnerable migrants is one of the long standing traditions of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement. The humanitarian response of National Societies in Europe to support vulnerable migrants increases the likelihood of encountering (potential) victims of human trafficking.The IFRC Migration Policy sets out principles for National Societies that they shall take into account and adopt in their work in this field. It acknowledges that “migrants may be subject to human trafficking, sexual or labour exploitation” that expose them to heightened and acute risks to their physical integrity and well-being.

Efforts to counter the COVID-19 pandemic have seen unprecedented restrictions on movement being imposed in many countries, both at borders and within countries. Some communities and policymakers have adopted increasingly hostile attitudes towards migrants, whom they perceive as contagion risks. Barriers to movement are therefore not only state-imposed but can also be community led. While these measures are reducing migration and the smuggling business in many regions in the short term, they are also heightening migrant-protection risks. Such measures are also likely to swell the profits of the smuggling industry in the medium term. COVID-19, and the measures introduced to control it are likely to increase the drivers for movement; the vulnerability of migrants at any point in their journey; the militarization of borders; and the further reduction of safe and legal routes. As the policy environment becomes more hostile to migration, the operating risks and prices of smuggling look set to rise. This may drive out operators with a lower risk appetite and attract organized-crime groups, who are more likely to exploit migrants for ever greater profit. To avoid emerging into a post-pandemic landscape characterized by a dramatically more severe migrant crisis and a more lucrative and professionalized smuggling market controlled by organized crime, it is key to monitor and mitigate the impact of COVID-19 on migrants and refugees throughout the pandemic.