The initiative was launched during a meeting at UN headquarters in Vienna during which the executive director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), Yuru Fedotov, said that "we must work together to take away from criminals the means and opportunities."

Joint research and work

The new initiative by the UNODC and the UN agency for migration (IOM), "encourages the main stake holders to join forces against migrant trafficking," the UN agencies said in a statement. The project encompasses joint research programs.

Their goal is:  

- to strengthen the ability of member states to dismantle criminal networks that deal in migrant trafficking

- to support action plans to prevent further human trafficking

- to improve activities to assist migrants who are victims of trafficking

IOM said that the organization, at a global level and through its regional and national offices, "has contributed to prevent and combat migrant trafficking for years" adopting the Comprehensive Approach to Counter Migrant Smuggling in 2016.

The strategy is based on four pillars:

- protection and assistance

- working on causes

- improving the ability of states to stop the activity of migrant smugglers

- promoting research and data gathering

UNODC also supports states, through global, regional and national programs, in fighting migrant trafficking through legal assistance and boosting their ability to investigate and prosecute crimes connected to migrant trafficking and to dismantle organized crime.

'We need to act. Too many lives are being lost…'

Fedotov said that "UNODC works to expand this work and explore ways to group UN agencies to guarantee that the response provided by criminal justice to migrant smuggling is part of an overall, multidisciplinary approach."

Argentina Szabados, IOM regional director for southeastern Europe, eastern Europe and central Asia, said that "there is no lack of political will nor legal protection for migrants - the gap is in the implementation. Smuggling migrants across borders is a transnational crime and requires transnational cooperation. We need to act. Too many lives are being lost and too much suffering is being withstood''.