SIGURNOSNI ASPEKTI KRIJUMČARENJA MIGRANATA I TRGOVINE LJUDIMA
SECURITY ASPECTS OF MIGRANT SMUGGLING AND TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS

Summary/Abstract: Trafficking in human beings and the smuggling of migrants today in many countries take forms that might have a serious potential for impacts on security. Security aspects of these phenomena are expressed both in countries of origin, transit, or final destination and concerning victims of these activities. A common element of human trafficking and migrant smuggling is the enormous profit made by the organizers of these activities, but it is wrong to equate these two concepts. The difference is coercion for exploitation, which is coercion that appears as obligatory in human trafficking, while in the smuggling of migrants it is only a side effect and can occur during the whole process, not only at the beginning. Security aspects of human trafficking and migrant smuggling can be also viewed through the prism of links to terrorism, but there is insufficient evidence to suggest direct links between the two phenomena. On the other hand, the uprise of violent extremism, ultra-right nationalism as well as ethnonational separatism can be directly linked to the increase of migrations in some countries. Hence, the securitization of migration emerges as the most common response of some countries to mass migrations, which can lead to greater security challenges. A review of available research on migration and security in Southeast Europe, the European Union, and the United States may lead to a conclusion that human trafficking and smuggling of migrants, although the backbone of organized transnational crime, cannot be considered generators of negative security impacts in these countries.

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