A/HRC/7/12 page 18 52. Furthermore, due to such complexities, in certain cases there seems to be a largely superficial distinction between the two practices, as well as confusion about their definition and scope. In principle, trafficking is generally considered a crime against human beings, and routinely involves coercion, deception, abduction, debt bondage, abuse of power and financial gain for those who facilitate and profit from the trade, and general exploitation of the victims of trafficking. It can imply threats to personal safety, sexual and reproductive health, and can entail abuse and degrading treatment during the process. By contrast, smuggling of migrants has been seen essentially as a crime against States, whereby the procurement of the illegal entry into a country of a non-citizen is seen as a violation of States’ sovereign power to refuse entry and expel aliens.38 53. In principle, smuggling is not, at least initially, a coercive practice because the potential migrant enters into a contract with the smuggler. However, smuggling practices have become much more comprehensive, as anti-migration policies have become more restrictive, opening up migrants to infinite abuses, inter alia, sexual exploitation, physical assault, debt servitude, and abandonment. As such, smuggled migrants are often susceptible to violations which they may not have foreseen before agreeing to be smuggled. Moreover, in certain cases, smuggled migrants can also become victims of trafficking, further blurring the distinction and causing a false hierarchy of victimization.39 54. In this regard, the notion of consent to being smuggled becomes ever-more complex. Once an irregular migrant is intercepted, it is up to the State in question to determine the migrant’s level of complicity in the mode of irregular entry, leaving much latitude for assignment of culpability or, by contrast, victimization, which impacts the level of protection that migrants may receive. That is, an irregular migrant that is thought to have consented to being smuggled may be perceived as deserving less protection than a victim of trafficking who may be perceived to have been unknowingly exploited. These distinctions are further complicated by discriminatory sentiments pertaining to country of origin or assumptions based on race and gender.40 55. The Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons Especially Women and Children, and the Protocol against the Smuggling of Migrants by Land, Sea and Air, both supplementing the United Nations Convention against Transnational Crime, contain a saving clause providing for the continued application of human rights, humanitarian law, and, where 38 Ibid., p. 4. 39 Ibid., p. 5. 40 Women involved in sex work or prostitution, whether consensually or not, may suffer further stigmatization. See Kamala Kempadoo, “Sex work migration and human trafficking: problems and possibilities”, in Intra-Caribbean Migration and the Conflict Nexus, 167-185.