Just Passing Through? International Legal Obligations and Policies of Transit Countries in Combating Trafficking in Persons
| Author | Benjamin Perrin |
| Published date | 01 January 2010 |
| DOI | 10.1177/1477370809347946 |
| Date | 01 January 2010 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
Article
Corresponding author:
Benjamin Perrin, Faculty of Law, University of British Columbia, 1822 East Mall, Vancouver, BC, V6T 1Z1, Canada
Email: perrin@law.ubc .ca
Just Passing Through?
International Legal Obligations
and Policies of Transit
Countries in Combating
Trafficking in Persons
Benjamin Perrin
University of British Columbia, Canada
Abstract
This article identifies several key characteristics of transit countries, including: (1) geographic
proximity to attractive destination countries; (2) insufficient legislation and weak enforcement
to deal with trafficking in persons and migrant smuggling; (3) liberal immigration policies; and (4)
an operational criminal infrastructure to facilitate trafficked persons’ entry into and exit from
a country. The challenges faced by transit countries – compared with origin and destination
countries – are discussed, and then a focused analysis is provided of the measures that transit
countries should pursue to prevent trafficking, prosecute traffickers and protect victims. The
article concludes that global efforts to improve the response of destination and origin countries
for human trafficking must be expanded to hold transit countries accountable in addressing this
problem.
Keywords
Illegal Migration, Migrant Smuggling, Smuggling–Trafficking Distinction, Trafficking in Persons,
Transit Countries.
International trafficking in persons is a serious transnational crime and human rights
violation that is often facilitated by the movement of victims through one or more transit
countries to a destination country, where they will be subject to exploitation. However,
there has been a general lack of attention paid to the obligations and good practices of
transit countries in addressing human trafficking.
Of the 154 jurisdictions ranked in the United States (US) Department of State’s Trafficking
in Persons Report 2008, two-thirds (103 jurisdictions) were identified as acting as transit
points for trafficking in persons (US Department of State 2008). The United Nations Office
on Drugs and Crime (UNODC 2006: 60) also identified 98 jurisdictions as transit countries
European Journal of Criminology
7(1) 11–27
© The Author(s) 2010
Reprints and permission: http://www.
sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermission.nav
DOI: 10.1177/1477370809347946
http://euc.sagepub.com
12 European Journal of Criminology 7(1)
for human trafficking. Although the US Department of State routinely ranks jurisdictions on
their overall efforts to combat trafficking in persons, there has been little reference to spe-
cific standards for transit countries. International bodies, such as the International
Organization for Migration (IOM), have similarly offered only limited guidance for transit
countries on performance indicators for counter-trafficking projects (IOM 2008).
Overview
This article examines the role of transit countries in international trafficking in persons and
seeks to identify legal and policy approaches to improve the abilities of these transit coun-
tries to confront this problem. I first identify factors that may contribute towards a jurisdic-
tion becoming a transit country. After exploring the challenge of differentiating at the
transit stage between international human trafficking and migrant smuggling, I then anal-
yse international legal instruments related to trafficking in persons and migrant smuggling
to provide a framework of relevant obligations for transit countries. Although these treaties
establish a baseline for appropriate conduct by transit countries, complex policy issues
arise in attempting to formulate a transit strategy to combat international trafficking in
persons. Before concluding, I summarize policies that transit countries have adopted to
combat human trafficking. Through this analysis, a clearer understanding of the responsi-
bilities of transit countries emerges to evaluate their progress and encourage their efforts.
Characteristics of transit countries
Transit migration has been defined by the IOM as ‘migratory movements to one or more
countries with the intention to migrate to yet another country of final destination’ (Siron
and Van Baeveghem 1999: 5). Transit migrants may enter a transit country: (a) on their
own initiative (legally or illegally); (b) with the assistance of a smuggler who they have
agreed will facilitate their movement and then terminate the relationship on arrival in the
destination country; or (c) with the assistance of a trafficker, or his/her associates, who
intend to exploit the individual in the destination country. In the case of international
trafficking in persons, the individual being moved may, or may not, be aware of the final
destination or that the ultimate purpose of the movement is their exploitation.
Traffickers resort to transit countries because they provide a relative advantage in
routing victims to the destination country. As Trevor Pearce of the United Kingdom (UK)
National Criminal Intelligence Department recognized, ‘organized criminals will try to
push people over any border that is easiest for them to cross’ (Nikolić-Ristanović et al.
2004: 161). The destination country is viewed as a greater source of potential profit from
the exploitation of victims, compared with the transit country. Although trends may be
identified, routes used to move international victims of human trafficking are regularly
changed to avoid detection (United States-Canada 2006).
During the past decade, several regional and local studies have been completed on
human trafficking transit countries. Collectively, they provide a set of characteristics that
help explain why traffickers may choose to move their victims through one or more tran-
sit countries in order to reach the destination country – rather than direct origin-to-desti-
nation country routing.
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