NCJ Number
182460
Date Published
November 1999
Length
25 pages
Annotation
This paper examines organizations involved in migrant trafficking in light of the most recent theories and interpretations of organized crime, that is the economic analysis of transnational criminal organizations.
Abstract
The trafficking of migrants to Australia, throughout the Asia-Pacific region and around the world has become a multi-billion-dollar business for criminal organizations. Over the last 10 years, thousands of migrants have been moved illegally across international borders with the assistance of professional trafficking organizations. The increasing number of people forced or willing to move abroad as well as the restrictions placed on legitimate migration systems have translated into organized crime. Around the world, trafficking organizations have learned to take advantage of this structural inequality, creating sophisticated channels of illegal migration while exploiting those forced or willing to migrate. With respect to the elaboration of future countermeasures on national, regional and international levels, the paper attempts to identify more precisely the major organizational and operational features of the migrant trafficking business. It provides an introductory discussion of the economic approach to organized crime; analyzes the illegal market in which criminal organizations, operate; and presents a working basis for examining the migrant trafficking organization. Notes, figure