Perceived involvement of “organised crime” in human trafficking and smuggling

Abstract

In order to develop an effective criminal justice response, it is crucial to truly understand the phenomena at hand. The analysis of the two phenomena singled out for this contribution -namely trafficking in persons and smuggling of migrants -will be focussed at trying to understand the nature and extent of the involvement of organised criminal groups therein.To that end, this article explores what we know, what we do not know and what we should know about the involvement of organised criminal groups in trafficking in persons and smuggling of migrants. The relationship between organised crime and trafficking in persons , and the relationship between organised crime and smuggling of migrants, is taken into consideration on a multitude of levels. Additionally, serving as a significant counter-weight for organised involvement, it is stressed that a significant role is reserved for un-organised criminality in these phenomena. Because of its importance, this aspect is equally explored and its consequences for criminal justice responses are analysed. On the basis of the findings of enormous variety in criminal involvement in both trafficking in persons and smuggling of migrants, criminal justice responses are in high need of re-consideration.

Entrepreneurial elements of human smuggling rings: findings from a multiple case study

“…First, data comparison is hampered by a lack of common language between the actors in the field. Second, geographical variations affect the availability of adequate information, a factor that may jeopardize meaningful international analyses (Vermeulen et al 2010;Costantino 2016).…”

The Right to a Fair Trial as a Conceptual Framework for Digital Evidence Rules in Criminal Investigations

“…238 The mutual recognition regime lies uneasily with the need for minimum procedural guarantees where "persons concerned are either allowed to claim specific rights that accrue to them in a specific national case, or be allowed to claim the best of both worlds, or should be subject to EU level minimum standards with regard to the execution of investigative measures." 239 Similarly, the Directives adopted within the EU roadmap for strengthening procedural rights of suspected or accused persons in criminal proceedings 240 does not contain any regulation on defence evidence gathering or contestability of evidence gathered in cross-border cooperation. Moreover, they do not codify any specific digital forensics rules of procedure or requirements for digital evidence reliability.…”

East Meets West

“…Mutual recognition, the applicable principle in the EIO instrument, is traditionally directly proportional to dual criminality: the more far-reaching mutual recognition is, the less far-reaching dual criminality requirement would likely be. 2291 It is said that this is closely linked to the rationale behind the dual criminality requirement: stemming from the principle ii.…”