Huddled Masses and Uncertain Shores

Book excerpt: Irregular migration, including trafficking in migrants, has emerged as a major international challenge. It now represents one-third or more of the yearly legal inflow in the United States and half in Europe. At the global level some US$7 billion is channelled every year into human trafficking. Its close interlocking with trafficking in arms and drugs, as well as with prostitution of women and child abuse, makes it an increasingly alarming menace.