In the Progress Declaration of the first International Migration Review Forum in May 2022, Member States committed to intensifying joint efforts, including through international cooperation between countries of origin, transit and destination, to prevent and counter the smuggling of migrants, in full respect for human rights. The United Nations Network on Migration established a workstream “Ensuring migrant protection through strengthened responses to migrant smuggling and increased coordination on its linkages with trafficking in person” to support Member States implement the related Objectives of the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration (GCM).

The Protocol against the Smuggling of Migrants by Land, Sea and Air, supplementing the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime (“the Smuggling of Migrants Protocol”), defines the “smuggling of migrants” as “the procurement, in order to obtain, directly or indirectly, a financial or other material benefit, of the illegal entry of a person into a State Party of which the person is not a national or a permanent resident".

The "smuggling of migrants" should be distinguished from that of “trafficking in persons”, which is defined in the Protocol to Prevent and Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, (“the TIP Protocol”) , as the “recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation”.

i. At least two (2) technical guidance notes/policy briefs (1 knowledge-based, 1 technical), topics to be determined by consultation with Member States and stakeholders.

Timeline: 2023 and 2024

ii. Two (2) dialogues (regular and ad-hoc) either virtual or in-person, among government actors and between governments and other relevant stakeholders, to exchange on counter-SOM responses, good practices and lessons learnt in different jurisdictions & facilitate drawing of synergies.

Timeline: 2023 and 2024

iii. Responses and calls to action against selected migrant smuggling incidents as they come up

Timeline: 2023 and 2024