RSS - Smuggling & Trafficking
Subscribe to our Smuggling & Trafficking RSS feed using your favorite RSS reader: Subscribe 
Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country and one of its largest economies, sits at the crossroads of the continent’s migration landscape. As both a regional immigration hub and an origin for significant emigration, the country contends with a wide range of migration issues that have evolved over time. This country profile situates Nigeria's migration trends and policies.
Migration governance in Africa's Sahel region has been been pulled in different directions, torn between security-focused border restrictions and economic visions for free movement. New complexity was added after Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger withdrew from the regional ECOWAS bloc. This articles provides insight on the migration and policy trends in a dynamic region.
As the number of defections from North to South Korea has declined, South Korea has struggled to respond to a new trend: a rising number of children born during defectors' long stays in China or other third country. As this article explains, these children automatically become South Korean citizens upon arrival but are not eligible for the range of government benefits designed to support defectors, leaving many to fall through the cracks.
Crossings of Channel waters in small, often unseaworthy vessels have become a top concern in France and the United Kingdom. As UK policymakers and their European counterparts consider striking a readmissions deal to more collaboratively manage these small boat crossings, this policy brief explores what is at stake, options for future cooperation, and what it will take for a deal to work in practice.
No country has been more critical to U.S. border enforcement than Mexico, with Mexican policies central to reductions in irregular border arrivals witnessed since the start of 2024. As the United States and Mexico navigate the next chapter in their long-standing engagement on migration issues, this policy brief provides an account of how migration patterns and policy responses changed in recent years and the challenges ahead.
Eritreans account for a disproportionately large share of the world’s refugees. But fleeing the harshly repressive country is rarely easy. This article provides a primer on the situation in Eritrea and the conditions that refugees and other emigrants have encountered abroad.
Germany's reinstatement of border controls with its nine neighbors runs the risk of creating a chain reaction, with other EU Member States following suit. In the process, this go-it-alone approach could pose a serious threat to the Schengen free movement zone as well as put the common European asylum system at risk, as this MPI Europe commentary explains.
Turkey is engaged in wide-ranging efforts to halt irregular migration and break up migrant smuggling networks. In recent years, the government has installed a three-meter-high wall along much of its borders with Syria and Iran, arrested thousands of smugglers, and engaged in agreements and cooperation with the European Union. This article explains the motivations behind the enforcement and how the strategy is evolving.
With immigration at the heart of competing policy proposals for the future of the United States, this year's Immigration Law and Policy Conference featured smart discussions of some of the most important immigration issues. This flagship conference brought together leading experts, including government officials, policymakers, attorneys, journalists, and advocates.
New leadership in London and in European capitals, alongside continuity at the European Commission, could offer a window for greater European cohesion and creativity on immigration policy. This MPI Europe commentary explores the opportunities for greater UK-EU cooperation on migration and asylum if both sides smartly rekindle their relationship and prioritize strategic engagement.
With UK voters headed to the polls on July 4, one thing is clear: Whatever party wins the election will face the ongoing challenges of addressing irregular arrivals by boat and growing asylum claims. But this could also be an opportunity for novel policy approaches and collaboration with international partners in Europe and beyond, this commentary argues.
Dos años después de la firma de La Declaración de Los Ángeles sobre Migración y Protección, los gobiernos de a través de las Américas se reunieron en Guatemala para analizar el estado de cooperación en el hemisferio. Organizaciones no gubernamentales e internacionales produjeron una agenda de acción práctica para el próximo año. Se explica en este comentario.
Two years after signing the Los Angeles Declaration on Migration and Protection, governments from across the Americas met in Guatemala to assess the state of cooperation in the hemisphere. Working with nongovernmental and international organizations, they also produced an agenda for practical action for the next year, as this commentary explains.
Once an obscure section of U.S. law, Title 42 was used to expel unauthorized migrants reaching U.S. borders nearly 3 million times from March 2020 to May 2023. Despite idealized depictions of its impact by some politicians, the order was largely ineffective in deterring irregular migration. Instead, it represented a dramatic break with decades of law providing protection to asylum seekers, as this article details.
An unknown number of women and girls from Southeast Asia have gone to China to marry Chinese men. Many go voluntarily, hoping for a better quality of life for themselves and their families. But some are deceived into their situation and are victims of human trafficking. This article takes a look at the phenomenon of marriage migration spurred by China's gender imbalance.
Unauthorized migration at the U.S.-Mexico border has been a high-profile and politically divisive issue for decades. But as the nature of migration at the border has changed profoundly, U.S. policy responses have struggled to keep up. This report explores the changing nature of migration flows and migration policy at the border from the early 1990s until today, highlighting key lessons for contemporary policy-making.
Former U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff talks about the security implications of climate change and migration in this episode of the podcast Changing Climate, Changing Migration.
The 20th annual Immigration Law and Policy Conference, organized by MPI, Catholic Legal Immigration Network, Inc., and Georgetown University Law Center, features fresh, thoughtful policy and legal analysis, and discussion of some of the top immigration issues by leading government officials, attorneys, researchers, advocates, and other experts.
El paso por el Tapón del Darién ha transformado la migración en las Américas. Cada día, más de 1.000 personas cruzan lo que no hace mucho era un tramo de selva poco transitado entre Colombia y Panamá, la mayoría con la esperanza de llegar a Estados Unidos o Canadá. Es un viaje increíblemente arriesgado. Los gobiernos se han esforzado por responder al creciente movimiento, que se espera que supere los 500.000 cruces en 2023.
Passage through the Darien Gap has transformed migration across the Americas. Hundreds of thousands of people have taken the incredibly perilous journey across the remote jungle between Colombia and Panama, risking exposure to hazardous terrain, criminal groups, and other dangers. As this article outlines, governments have struggled to respond to the growing movement, expected to top 500,000 crossings in 2023.