KRIJUMČARENJE LJUDI U USLOVIMA PANDEMIJE
PEOPLE SMUGGLING UNDER PANDEMIC CONDITIONS

Summary/Abstract: The paper will present the impact of the COVID-19 virus pandemic on people smuggling, which the author observes as a result of the interrelationship between the phenomenon of irregular migration and the smuggling of illegal migrants. The effects of harsher conditions for cross-border movement, as well as restrictive regimes for immigrants, refugees and asylum seekers, were also taken into account. The author pays special attention to the issue of the relationship between pandemic measures and criminal activities of route organizers for people smuggling and their associates. One of the key questions in the paper is whether the rigor of measures to curb the spread of the global COVID-19 virus proactively works to reduce the intensity of illegal migration, to decline the number of potential asylum seekers and to descend the social danger of criminal activities related to smuggling of human beings. The author places the pandemic effect of feeling insecurity as a generator of migratory aspirations, which are exposed to international networks of organized crime, causing the victimization of migrants and an increased frequency of violent criminal activities. As accompanying factors of human smuggling under pandemic conditions, the author especially considers the importance of missing persons on migrant routes and the aggressive criminalization of the basic human need to seek better living and working conditions. Pointing out the connection between global pandemic restrictions on social life, the ways in which people are smuggled and the activities of organized criminal groups to establish, maintain and expand the flow of illegal migration, is the backbone of this paper.

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