Smugglers and traffickers are often used by refugees and asylum seekers on the move. At times, in order to try to find safety, they definitely use them to circumvent restrictions that are often put in place.
According to the refugee convention, individuals, no matter which mode they use to enter a country, have the right to seek asylum and to seek safety. What we often look at and worry about is the exploitation and abuse of those vulnerable populations by traffickers, which is a much more serious definition.
In trafficking, you're looking at the exploitation of the individual for some kind of personal gain, whereas smuggling is lower on the danger scale and looks more at moving the individual or assisting the person to move, either for a small amount of money, for instance, or for some kind of return. Trafficking, however, is exploitation of the individual, which is much more serious in our Criminal Code and internationally than the smuggling definition.
It is definitely something that we see often, and we're seeing it on the rise as countries are looking at more restrictive measures to keep people out. As you may know, people who are desperate and who want to find safety will increasingly resort to more dangerous routes and the use of smugglers and traffickers in order to find safety.