U.N.: migrant smuggling a $7 billion business

UNITED NATIONS, Oct. 6 (UPI) -- Two main routes of smuggling of migrants, to Europe and to North America, generate nearly $7 billion to smuggling networks, the United Nations said Monday.

The statement came from the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime as a conference on the issue opened Monday in Vienna.

"Terrible tragedies are occurring daily as vulnerable women, children and men, place their trust in criminals to smuggle them across national borders," UNODC Executive Director Yuri Fedotov at the opening of the Seventh Session of the Conference of the Parties to the UN Convention against Transnational Organized Crime.

He called on countries to unite to prosecute and jail smugglers and offer care and protection to migrants.

"Through close cooperation, information sharing and joint operations, we can prevent the smugglers from staying one step ahead of law enforcement," Fedotov said.

The International Organization for Migration, based in Geneva, Switzerland, said in a recent over 40,000 migrants have died since 2000 during journeys toward a new life.

The U.N. conference in Vienna was convened to address issues of human trafficking, international cooperation on extradition and new forms of transnational organized crime.