"This report builds on Migrant Smuggling in Asia (volume I) by outlining the current patterns of migrant smuggling in Asia and the Pacific and presenting evidence-based knowledge to guide policy and strengthen international cooperation. Developed by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, the report is part of a series of knowledge products that explore important and far-reaching issues confronting States and communities in Asia and the Pacific, as part of an ongoing analytical and capacitystrengthening process. Countries in the Asia-Pacific region often have a multifaceted relationship to the smuggling of migrants phenomenon, with some countries simultaneously serving as source, transit and destination countries for smuggling of migrants. Law enforcement responses to migrant smuggling to specific countries or on specific routes may have a mere displacement effect. For example, the closure of the maritime migrant smuggling route to Australia may have increased the migrant smuggling flows to wealthier Asian countries, and flows to Europe. New border fences in Greece and similar anti-migrant smuggling measures in other European countries have encouraged smugglers and smuggled migrants to increasingly use maritime smuggling routes again. Law enforcement actions in Southeast Asia, for example, in response to the 2015 Bay of Bengal migrant smuggling crisis, have possibly diverted maritime smuggling routes from Myanmar and Bangladesh back to land routes, and/or affected flows to other destination countries. While a range of factors motivate the need for migration and the use of smugglers, including political persecution, environmental factors, and social factors, most smuggled migrants are in pursuit of improved economic opportunities. Migrants often use smugglers when accessing legal channels for migration are too expensive, slow or difficult. For example, smuggling remains a cheaper option for migrants from Cambodia, Lao PDR and Myanmar moving to Thailand, despite efforts to make legal channels less expensive. Nevertheless, in some countries, such as Myanmar, issues related to statelessness and conflict are clear ‘push’ factors. In many cases of conflict or political persecution, displacement and related migrant smuggling flows can be predicted before they occur. Examples of this are the 2015 Bay of Bengal Crisis and the recent violence in Rakhine State, which prompted over 640,000 Rohingya refugees to cross the land border irregularly into Bangladesh, many using smugglers in the process. Other recent examples are the conflicts in Iraq and Syria, which have pushed many Iraqis and Syrians to seek safety in Europe and other destinations. The recent mass migration from those countries to Europe illustrates how a migration surge may also encourage nationals of other countries to use smugglers, as occurred when many nationals of Afghanistan, Iran, and other countries joined the mass flow to Europe. Migrant smuggling involves real dangers for the lives, health and safety of migrants. Due to their irregular status in transit and destination countries, smuggled migrants often find it difficult to assert their rights, and are vulnerable to abuse, exploitation and trafficking. The increasing number of unaccompanied minors being smuggled from Asia to Europe is of particular concern, as is the number of smuggled migrants being extorted and trafficked, as occurred recently on the Thailand/Malaysia border, where mass graves of Rohingya refugees and Bangladeshi migrants were discovered..."