Smuggling

A skirmish with smugglers from Finland at the Russian border, 1853, by Vasily Hudiakov.

Smuggling, or trafficking, is illegal transport, in particular across a border. Taxes are avoided; or the goods themselves are illegal for unlicensed possession; or people are transported to a place where they are not allowed to be.

Smuggled goods and people

Illegal drug trafficking, and the smuggling of armaments (gunrunning), as well as the historical staples of smuggling, alcohol and tobacco, are widespread. The profits involved in smuggling goods appears to be extensive. It has been reported that smuggling one truckload of cigarettes within the United States leads to a profit of $2 Million Dollars. [1]

With regard to people smuggling, a distinction can be made between people smuggling as a service to those wanting to illegally migrate and the involuntary trafficking of people. An estimated 90% of people who illegally crossed the border between Mexico and the United States are believed to have paid a smuggler to lead them across the border. [2]

A related topic is illegally passing a border oneself.

See also illegal immigration and illegal emigration.

Smuggling methods

With regard to crossing borders we can distinguish concealment of the whole transport or concealment of just the smuggled goods:

Avoiding border checks, such as by small ships, private airplanes, through overland smuggling routes and smuggling tunnels. This also applies for illegally passing a border oneself, for illegal immigration or illegal emigration. In many parts of the world, particularly the Gulf of Mexico, the smuggling vessel of choice is the go-fast boat.
Submitting to border checks with the goods or people hidden in a vehicle or between (other) merchandise, or the goods hidden in lugguage, in or under cloths, inside the body (see body cavity search and balloon swallower), etc. Many smugglers fly on regularly scheduled airlines. A large number of suspected smugglers are caught each year by airport police worldwide. Goods and people are also smuggled across seas hidden in containers, and overland hidden in cars, trucks, and trains. A related topic is illegally passing a border oneself as a stowaway. The high level of duty levied on alcohol and tobacco in Britain has led to large-scale smuggling from France to the UK through the Channel Tunnel.

For the related topic of illegally passing a border oneself, another method is with a false passport (completely fake, or illegally changed, or the passport of a lookalike).

History

Smuggling has a long and controversial history, probably dating back to the first time at which duties were imposed in any form.

In Britain, smuggling became economically significant at the end of the 18th century, although of course it was carried out to a greater or lesser extent prior to this high-water mark. The high rates of duty levied on wine and spirits, and other luxury goods coming in from mainland Europe at this time made the clandestine import of such goods and the evasion of the duty a highly profitable venture for impoverished fishermen and seafarers. In certain parts of the country such as the Romney Marsh, East Kent, Cornwall and East Cleveland, the smuggling industry was for many communities more economically significant than legal activities such as farming and fishing. The principal reason for the high duty was the need for the government to finance a number of extremely expensive wars with France and the United States of America.

Lately, as many first-world countries have struggled to contain a rising influx of immigrants, the smuggling of people across national borders has become a lucrative extra-legal activity, as well as the extremely dark side, people-trafficking, especially of women who may be enslaved typically as prostitutes.

Human trafficking

Main article: Trafficking in human beings

Trafficking in human beings, sometimes called human trafficking, or sex trafficking (as the majority of victims are women or children forced into prostitution) is not the same as people smuggling. A smuggler will facilitate illegal entry into a country for a fee, but on arrival at their destination, the smuggled person is free; the trafficking victim is enslaved. Victims do not agree to be trafficked: they are tricked, lured by false promises, or forced into it. Traffickers use coercive tactics including deception, fraud, intimidation, isolation, threat and use of physical force, debt bondage or even force-feeding with drugs to control their victims. Whilst the majority of victims are women, and sometimes children, forced into prostitution, other victims include men, women and children forced into manual labor.

Due to the illegal nature of trafficking, the exact extent is unknown. A US Government report published in 2003, estimates that 800,000-900,000 people worldwide are trafficked across borders each year.^{[citation needed]} This figure does not include those who are trafficked internally.

Etymology

The word probably comes from the Common Germanic verb smeugan (Old Norse smjúga) = "to creep into a hole". Other sources say it comes from the Middle Dutch verb smokkelen.

External links

Smuggling in 18th and 19th century Britain
Smuggled Goods and Products information
King's Cutters and Smugglers 1700-1855, by E. Keble Chatterton, from Project Gutenberg
Smuggling on Romney Marsh, England

Organizations working against Trafficking:

Ansar Burney Trust - working in the Middle East

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