Difference Between Human Trafficking and Human Smuggling

Trafficking in Persons/Human Trafficking: a crime whereby traffickers exploit people by compelling them to engage in forced labor or commercial sex. When a person younger than 18 is found in commercial sex, it is sex trafficking, no proof of force, fraud, or coercion is necessary.

Human smuggling involves bringing aliens into the United States by deliberately evading immigration laws and unlawfully transporting and harboring aliens who are already unlawfully present in the United States. Human smuggling is a multibillion-dollar industry for transnational criminal organizations that do not value human safety and take advantage of vulnerable people. It threatens U.S. border security and public safety. [https://www.ice.gov/hsi/investigate/human-smuggling]

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The Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA) of 2000 defined “severe forms of trafficking in persons” in 22 U.S.C. § 7102 (11) as:

Sex trafficking in which a commercial sex act is induced by force, fraud, or coercion, or in which a person induced to perform such act has not attained 18 years of age; OR
The recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, or obtaining of a person for labor or services, using force, fraud, or coercion for the purpose of subjection to involuntary servitude, peonage, debt bondage, or slavery

Sex trafficking means the recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, obtaining, patronizing, or soliciting of a person for the purpose of a commercial sex act. -22 U.S.C. § 7102 (12)

The term “commercial sex act” means any sex act on account of which anything of value is given to or received by any person. - 22 U.S.C. § 7102 (3)

The Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA) of 2000 defines trafficking in persons/human trafficking as "The recruitment, harboring, transporting, providing, obtaining, (and for sex trafficking, the patronizing, soliciting, or advertising) of a person using force, fraud, or coercion, for the purpose of commercial sex or forced labor."

How Trafficking in Persons Occurs

Actions

Recruiting
Harboring
Transporting
Providing
Obtaining
Patronizing, Advertising, or Soliciting*

*Patronizing, Advertising, and Soliciting refer to sex trafficking only

Means**

Through:

Force
Fraud
Coercion

**Minors induced into commercial sex are TIP victims – regardless of force, fraud, or coercion.

For Purpose of

Commercial Sex
Forced Labor
Involuntary Servitude
Debt Bondage
Slavery

Human Smuggling	Human Trafficking
Crime committed against a country.	Crime committed against a person.
Persons are free to leave or change jobs.	Persons are enslaved, subjected to restrictions, or documents are confiscated.
Persons who are smuggled are complicit in the smuggling crime and are not necessarily victims of the crime.	Persons who are trafficked are victims of a crime.
The person being smuggled is generally cooperating, voluntarily entering into an agreement with the smuggler.	Must contain an element of force, fraud, or coercion (actual, perceived, or implied), unless victim under 18 years of age is involved in commercial sex.
Facilitates the illegal entry of person(s) from one country into another. Always crosses an international border.	Does not need to involve the actual movement of the victim. There is no requirement to cross an international border.

Child Soldier is defined in the Child Soldiers Prevention Act of 2008 (22 U.S. Code § 2370c) as:

Any person under 18 years of age who:

takes direct part in hostilities as a member of governmental armed forces, police, or other security forces;
has been compulsorily recruited into governmental armed forces, police, or other security forces;
has been recruited or used in hostilities by armed forces distinct from the armed forces of a state; or

Any person under 15 years of age who has been voluntarily recruited into governmental armed forces, police, or other security forces.

Child soldiers are forced to fight but also used as: cooks, porters, messengers, medics, guards, spies, and sex slaves.

Note: This Act is found in the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2008 (P.L. 110-457) and was amended in P.L. 115-425.