A/HRC/31/35 56. Smugglers occupy an ambiguous position in the facilitation of mobility today. It should be noted that smuggling, as seen through a human rights lens, does not in itself constitute a human rights violation and can be the relatively neutral provision of a service that could enable a migrant to escape persecution or deprivation. In a study of child mobility in West Africa, it was noted that such actors play a very important role in the phase between departure and arrival, as they are regarded as a trusted and vital source of protection and assistance by travellers, including children on the move.67 57. At the same time, migrants who have turned to smugglers often have little other choice in how they move and, in that unequal power relationship, smuggled migrants are particularly at risk of abuse and exploitation, including being forced into situations of trafficking. In 2015, there were reports of severe abuse by smugglers of migrants travelling from Myanmar and Bangladesh, including violence and deprivation of food and water. The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) estimated that 11 or 12 out of every 1,000 people on smugglers’ boats in the Andaman Sea died from starvation, dehydration or violence.68 58. Migrants in transit have also become easy prey to criminal actors who have kidnapped and imprisoned migrants, often for the purposes of extorting money from their families. Reports indicate that kidnapping and extortion have become a ready source of income for some of the many militia groups active in Libya.69 Similar practices have been recorded in South-East Asia,70 Mexico,71 the Sinai Peninsula and elsewhere. 59. Trafficking is always a human rights violation and is often accompanied by high levels of violence.72 Migrants in transit can be trafficked for various forms of exploitation, including labour exploitation in various sectors as well as sexual exploitation. 60. The Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, supplementing the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime, contains important provisions in respect of protection for victims of 67 68 69 70 71 72 Terre des Hommes, Locally-Developed Child Protection Practices Concerning Mobile Children in West Africa, 2014, p. 44. See also Maybritt Jill Alpes, “Law and the credibility of migration brokers: The case of emigration dynamics in Cameroon”, Working Papers Series, No.80 (International Migration Institute, December 2013), pp. 4 and 8, in which it is noted the first point of departure for many aspiring migrants in Anglophone Cameroon is not the embassy, but a migration broker or a member of family. Migration brokers are not “other” to aspiring migrants, but rather “allies” and “helpers” in a quest for both geographic and social mobility. UNHCR Tracks, “Abandoned at Sea”, Stories of refugees and aid workers, 26 August 2015. Available from http://tracks.unhcr.org/2015/08/abandoned-at-sea/. Tuesday Reitano, “A Perilous but profitable crossing: The changing nature of migrant smuggling through sub-Saharan Africa to Europe and EU migration policy (2012-2015)” (see footnote 13), p. 10. In October 2015 Mohammed Alam, 21 years, reported how his family had to sell all its cattle to secure his freedom. It has been two years since he returned penniless to Sonarpara, Bangladesh, after spending 19 days at sea on a trawler with 420 other people on board before being held hostage in southern Thailand for 17 days until his family paid 170,000 taka (about $2,200). See Bruno StagnoUgarte, “The Other Refugee Crisis: The Plight of Bangladesh’s Migrants”, Foreign Affairs, 21 October 2015. In 2010, 72 migrants were massacred in Tamaulipas state and buried in shallow graves by the drugtrafficking cartel Los Zetas after their families failed to pay a ransom. See “Mexico rescues more than 100 kidnapped migrants”, BBC News, 7 May 2015. A survey in the Greater Mekong Subregion found that nearly half (47.4 per cent) of the 1,015 participants who reached their destination reported experiencing physical and/or sexual violence during the time they were trafficked. See Cathy Zimmerman and others, Health and human trafficking in the Greater Mekong Subregion (see footnote 39), p. 35. 15