Legal Responses to Human Smuggling A case Study with Special Reference to Sri Lanka

Abstract

Legal Responses to Human smuggling: A case study with reference to Sri Lanka The United National Convention on Transnational Organized Crime 2000(UNCTOC)and the Protocol against the Smuggling of Migrants by Land, Sea and Air 2000 (HS Protocol)are the major international instruments that deal with human smuggling. The UNCTOC score objective is to criminalize transnational organized crime. The HS protocol s main purpose is to penalize human smuggling and protect the rights of the smuggled migrants. Both instruments require states to take legal and other measures, and extend their cooperation to other states to counter human smuggling. This study s main objective is to assess the extent of Sri Lanka s ability to deal with human smuggling as compared with international legal instruments, by adopting both doctrinal and non-doctrinal methodologies. Under doctrinal methodology; descriptive, interpretative, analytical and comparative approaches, and under non-doctrinal methodology, quantitative and qualitative methods have been adopted. The study reveals a huge gap exists between the international legal framework and the existing domestic legal provisions. Findings suggest that Sri Lanka needs to adopt comprehensive legal provisions to include definition of human smuggling, aggravated offences and appropriate punishments. newlineKeywords: Human Smuggling, Transnational crime, Organized criminal Group, Immigrants and Emigrants 1948 (Sri Lanka), organized crime, irregular departure, smuggled migrants, domestic legal framework, international legal framework, theoretical approaches to human smuggling newline newline