INTRODUCTION

Child smuggling and trafficking had hardly been discussed before and during the 1990s, despite it having always existed. The fact that, in the last few years, the issue of child smuggling and trafficking has been brought into the public arena of national and international bodies is a significant accomplishment. It can also be considered that there has been some progress towards the elimination of criminal activities related to child smuggling and trafficking. At the same time, academics consider that these achievements are far from satisfactory.

There is a correlation between the phenomenon of migration and child trafficking. Children who are recruited and transported for the purpose of exploitation are considered as trafficked no matter whether or not they consented to the move. The reason for this is that the questions about choice, consent and agency are irrelevant when children are concerned. The correlation between child migration and child trafficking has been noticed by the Special Rapporteur on the sale and sexual exploitation of children and the Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons, especially women and children, and they have published a joint study on this subject. More particularly, they have found that:

This chapter aims to determine how the existing international legal framework, in particular the Council of Europe Convention on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings, protects migrants – often unaccompanied children – against child smuggling and trafficking. In accordance with the UN Convention against Transnational Organized Crime Trafficking Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, especially Women and Children, the key elements of human trafficking are: recruitment and facilitated movement of a person within or across national frontiers by means of coercion, threats or deception for the purpose of exploitation.

Human smuggling, under the UN Convention against Transnational Organized Crime, Protocol against the Smuggling of Migrants by Land, Sea and Air, is the illegal movement of persons across international borders in order to obtain a financial benefit. Smuggling finishes when the person arrives at a destination while trafficking results in exploitation.