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SMUGGLING IN THE TIME OF COVID-19: The impact of the pandemic on human-smuggling dynamics and migrant-protection risks

Knowledge Platform

SMUGGLING IN THE TIME OF COVID-19: The impact of the pandemic on human-smuggling dynamics and migrant-protection risks

Efforts to counter the COVID-19 pandemic have seen unprecedented restrictions on movement being imposed in many countries, both at borders and within countries. Some communities and policymakers have adopted increasingly hostile attitudes towards migrants, whom they perceive as contagion risks. Barriers to movement are therefore not only state-imposed but can also be community led. While these measures are reducing migration and the smuggling business in many regions in the short term, they are also heightening migrant-protection risks.  

Date of Publication
Type of Resource
Policy Brief
Target Audience
General Public
Source / Publisher
Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime
Language
English
Geographic Scope
Global
Workstream Output
No
Regional Review Process
No
GCM Objectives
9
Cross Cutting Theme
Human rights
Keywords
COVID-19 and migration
Smuggling of migrants
Status
Published

*References to Kosovo shall be understood to be in the context of United Nations Security Council resolution 1244 (1999).