How does smuggling work

The main items smuggled in the 18th century were tea, wine, spirits and lace. In the Prime Minister, William Pitt the Younger, suggested that of the 13 million pounds weight of tea consumed in Britain, only 5. Smuggling gangs were often people, each with a specific role. Gangs would have to be watchful for officers from HM Customs.

The coastline was divided into 33 areas, each with teams of preventative officers, whose job it was to prevent smuggling, or catch the smugglers. However, there were insufficient officers to patrol the whole coastline and many smugglers were never caught.

Those that were caught were often not convicted, as few people would testify against the gangs because they threatened people to keep quiet. Smugglers were often executed as a deterrent to others. Smuggling routes have become increasingly interconnected and complex in response to legislative and law enforcement activities.

They may be simple and direct, but more often than not, they are circuitous. For example, migrants from both Africa and Asia may be found along the same smuggling route up to North America. The relationship between criminals and migrants is very much a temporary one, making the criminals difficult to trace. They are generally unknown to the people they are smuggling, hide behind pseudonyms in encrypted chats and use rental vehicles and different mobile numbers, for example.

While some migrants and smugglers make contact face-to-face at well-known meeting points, most of the smuggling process is carried out online. Criminal groups use the Internet or dark web to recruit, gather real-time information on routes, communicate and advertise their services. For migrants, planning an illegal journey can seem like booking a holiday. Platforms are professionally run and follow a specific business model.

Reality, unfortunately, can be very different from what was advertised. Hazardous routes, overcrowded boats, abandonment, and forced criminality are just some of the dangers faced by migrants once they set off. Technology also acts as a lifeline for migrants.

Additionally, anyone under the age of 18 who is involved in sex for profit is considered a trafficking victim, regardless of the presence of force, fraud or coercion. So while smuggling might be affected by policies related to border enforcement, trafficking would not. For the last approximately 14 years Polaris has operated the U.

National Human Trafficking Hotline, providing confidential support to thousands of potential victims of human trafficking and amassing the largest known data set on this crime in the United States.

From that we have learned how traffickers use immigration status as a weapon in both labor and sex trafficking. In the majority of labor trafficking cases we learn about through the Trafficking Hotline, the victims are in this country legally on temporary work visas.

These visas are given to businesses like construction companies, farms and carnival operators who claim they cannot fill their job openings with people already in the United States.

Unfortunately, these visas only allow the holder to work for the single business that sponsored them. If it turns out that business is exploitative — like workers are all required to live in a single trailer without running water, for example — there is little the worker can do.

If he or she complains or tries to leave, their boss can have them deported. The threat of deportation is enough to keep many workers in abusive situations. This is labor trafficking. Victims of sex trafficking are also frequently coerced and controlled through immigation-related threats.

But that too generally is something that happens once the victim is already in this country. Typically immigrant sex trafficking victims come to the United States voluntarily.