Abstract
The article observes and discusses the failure of the current international legal framework relating to human trafficking and migrant smuggling. It argues that this framework has failed to provide a solid basis for dealing with these issues and that there have been serious consequences due to that failure. It suggests that the legal distinction between migrant smuggling and human trafficking has proven inadequate as a basis for international cooperation and the protection of migrants and victims of trafficking. On the one hand, the complicated legal definition of human trafficking imposed by that framework has been inoperable and has contributed little to the protection of victims of that heinous crime. On the other hand, the criminalization of migrant smuggling has served to justify the criminalization of immigration and weaken the protection owed to refugees. The article deplores the lack of space left in international immigration and criminal justice policies for alternative approaches to these issues and calls for a different contribution from academic research to broaden that space.
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Dandurand, Y., Jahn, J. (2020). The Failing International Legal Framework on Migrant Smuggling and Human Trafficking. In: Winterdyk, J., Jones, J. (eds) The Palgrave International Handbook of Human Trafficking. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-63058-8_47
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