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8. Trafficking and smuggling in Europe8.TRAFFICKING AND SMUGGLING IN EUROPEMigration is an old and complex problem from both the social and criminologicalpoints of view. At European level, attempts have been made to define thephenomenon of human migration by identifying particular cases, principal amongwhich are the following:- legitimate/legal migration and asylum seeking;- illegal migration, irregular or without identity or travel documents;- illegal organised immigration;- trafficking in persons.Illegal immigration and trafficking in persons are the most important categorieswithin the context of socio–criminological analysis, and both are increasing inEurope. According to Europol data, 93 illegal immigration has grown in someMember States of the European Union especially, notably Spain and Italy. However,the preferred destination countries are still Austria, Belgium, the Netherlands,Sweden and Great Britain. By contrast, precise determination of the most recenttrends in person trafficking in persons is not possible. This is because the victimsare regularly moved from one Member State to another, so that it is difficult toidentify the preferred destination countries. However, Germany, the Netherlands,Belgium and France seem to be more vulnerable than others.These considerations highlight that trafficking in persons and the smuggling ofmigrants are growing at worrying rates not only within individual countries but alsoat the level of the European Union.A recent improvement notwithstanding, statistics on illegal immigration andtrafficking are still insufficient, both in the European Union and elsewhere. Little isknown about the number of those who migrate illegally with the help of traffickers,or about the number of persons at the service of the criminal groups engaged inthe smuggling. The situation is even more serious when one seeks to obtaininformation on the number and characteristics of the victims of smuggling andtrafficking, for example women and children, asylum seekers, and so forth. Themost detailed information on the characteristics of victims is that provided by theInternational Migration Organisation (IMO), which carries out periodic surveys onthe phenomenon. 94 Moreover, as highlighted by the relevant literature, 95 there areno estimations of the extent and nature of smuggling. 96 Complaints about the lackof statistic data and calls for research to remedy these shortcomings are constantly93 Europol, 2000 EU Organised Crime Situation Report, 2001, available athttp://www.europol.eu.int/index.asp?page=EUOrganisedCrimeSitRep2000.94 IOM, Journeys of Jeopardy: A Review of Research on Trafficking in Women and Children in Europe, IMOMigration Research Series, No. 11, Geneva, September 2002; IOM, Victims of Trafficking in the Balkans. AStudy of Trafficking in Women and Children for Sexual exploitation to, through and from the Balkan Region,cit.; IOM, Migrant Trafficking in Europe: A Review of the Evidence with Case Studies from Hungary, Polandand Ukraine, cit.95 B. De Ruyver, W. Van Eeckhoutte, J. Meese, K. Van Impe, and S. Vanheste, op. cit.96 IOM, Victims of Trafficking in the Balkans. A Study of Trafficking in Women and Children for SexualExploitation to, through and from the Balkan Region, cit., pp. 1-8.71