What is the Difference Between Trafficking in Persons and Human Smuggling?
The differences between migrant smuggling and trafficking in persons can be confusing. This confusion can make it difficult to obtain accurate information, especially from transit countries. Trafficking often but not always involves smuggling; the victim may initially agree to be transported within a country or across borders. Distinguishing between the two activities often requires detailed information on the victim’s final circumstances. Smuggling is generally understood to be the procurement or transport for profit of a person for illegal entry into a country. But the facilitation of illegal entry into or through a country is not, standing alone, trafficking in persons, even though it is often undertaken in dangerous or degrading conditions. Smuggling sometimes involves migrants who have consented to the activity. Trafficking victims, on the other hand, have either never consented or, if they initially consented, their consent has been negated by the coercive, deceptive or abusive a
