A/HRC/31/35 which do not respect the dignity of the human being. Along the migration continuum, varying degrees of coercion and voluntariness mark each individual’s migration experience, which is dynamic in that it changes as the journey progresses. 12. The contemporary phenomenon of transit migration is linked in many ways to increasing barriers to international migration. Stringent migration control measures, coupled with a lack of regular migration channels for work, family reunification, education and humanitarian reasons, are increasingly restricting the options for movement of potential migrants and, in many cases, compelling them to move through irregular channels. Such control measures include legislation that criminalizes irregular emigration, age and sectorspecific bans on the movement of potential migrants and the externalization of migration control, which can be manifested in obstacles such as carrier sanctions and onerous visa requirements.8 The phenomenon of “refugees in orbit”, whereby refugees are unable to access the asylum system and are therefore obliged to move from one country to another, is an important driver of transit migration, as are overly onerous and lengthy refugee status determination processes. 13. A migrant who moves regularly experiences the journey and “transit” differently from a migrant who travels irregularly. Studies indicate that most irregular migrants will use the services of a range of actors in the informal economy, including smugglers, at some point during their journey. For instance, it has been estimated that 80 per cent of recent crossings of the Mediterranean from Africa to Europe were facilitated by migrant smugglers.9 Another study found that almost two thirds of migrants transiting in Indonesia were using the services of smugglers or agents to arrange their irregular movement towards Australia.10 Irregular migrants in transit are often at risk of abuse as a result of corruption.11 14. Corruption emerges as a key element in the experience of migrants in transit, including along smuggling routes. Border officials, police, soldiers and consulate and embassy officials may also participate in the movement of migrants by providing documentation, by turning a blind eye to migrants or even by their involvement as organizers or facilitators in collusion with criminal actors. 12 For migrants in transit, corruption can exacerbate risks and prolong journeys; it is an enormous obstacle to the realization of human rights and has a disproportionate impact on the poor. Migrants who 8 9 10 11 12 Maybritt Jill Alpes and Ninna Nyberg Sørensen, “Migration risk campaigns are based on wrong assumptions”, Policy brief (Danish Institute for International Studies, 5 May 2015). The authors refer to the “document jungle”, in which consulate offices may request documents that people have never needed before in their life and work trajectories (see p. 4), such as bank accounts. Tuesday Reitano, Laura Adal and Mark Shaw, Smuggled Futures: The Dangerous Path of the Migrant from Africa to Europe, (Geneva, Global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime, 2014), p. 1. Graeme Hugo, George Tan and Caven Jonathan Napitupulu, Indonesia as a Transit Country in Irregular Migration to Australia, Irregular Migration Research Programme, Occasional Paper Series 08/2014 (Australia, Department of Immigration and Border Protection, September 2014), p. 22. For example, research indicates that Nepali migrants en route to other destinations will elect to travel through India – thereby prolonging their journey and the risks associated with being in transit – as a way of avoiding having to pay a bribe at the labour migration desk at Kathmandu airport. See International Labour Organization, No Easy Exit: Migration Bans Affecting Women from Nepal (Geneva, 2015), p. 9. Available from www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---ed_norm/--declaration/documents/publication/wcms_428686.pdf. See United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), “Corruption and the smuggling of migrants”, Issue paper (Vienna, 2013); also Nourhan Abdel Aziz, Paola Monzini, Ferruccio Pastore, The Changing Dynamics of Cross-border Human Smuggling and Trafficking in the Mediterranean (Rome, Istituto Affari Internazionali, 2015), p. 27. 5