Human Smuggling in Austria: A Comparative Analysis of Data on Smuggled Migrants from Former Yugoslavia and the Russian Federation

Abstract

This article provides a summary of the author’s research on human smuggling in Austria comparing migrants from Former Yugoslavia and the Russian Federation. The project’s primary intent was to collect more detailed information on migrants seeking asylum in Austria and their use of smuggling services to leave their home countries, including detailed information on demographics, force or threat of force by smugglers, routes and methods of transportation, costs of smuggling, payment methods, and deeper perceptual questions regarding the flight. Another central premise of the article discusses how current distinctions between human smuggling and human trafficking are arbitrary in many regards.

Understanding Transit Asylum Migration: Evidence from Serbia

“…According to Peterka‐Benton (), centres for asylum seekers are among the few places where the population of irregular migrants is visible. Serbian centers for asylum seekers in Banja Koviljača and Bogovađa, which are open‐type accommodation centres, are similar in terms of composition of the immigrants (Table ).…”

Becoming a Smuggler: Migration and Violence at EU External Borders

“…Yet this fluid relationship echoes broader findings elsewhere, notably that the migrant-smuggler relationship is complex and often blurs lines between migrants as "victims" and smugglers as "perpetrators" (Triandafyllidou 2018). Smugglers can be perceived as facilitators of protection from violence (Ayalew Mengiste 2018;Brachet 2018;Maher 2018;Vogt 2016), as well as agents of exploitation and violence themselves, as they may kidnap or rob migrants (Müller 2018;Peterka-Benton 2011;Simpson 2020). The smuggler-migrant relationship thus intertwines care and control.…”

How useful is the concept of transit migration in an intra-Schengen mobility context? Diving into the migrant smuggling and human trafficking nexus in search for answers

“…Linking it back to the concept of transit migration and the situation of individuals stranded in transit spaces aiming to continue their journey onwards, the gray zone identified between migrant smuggling and human trafficking by scholars appears even grayer. Indeed, the blurred area found at the nexus between the two phenomena involves an interplay between facilitation, exploitation, extortion, debt bondage, as well as the simultaneous presence and absence of full and partial consent (see Carling et al 2015;Peterka-Benton 2011). When individuals get stuck in so-called transit zones, their vulnerability to exploitation and abuse is likely to be enhanced (Brunovskis and Surtees 2019).…”