In September the news that two Syrian children, aged just one and two years old, had died of thirst aboard a boat heading to Italy sent waves of indignation across and outside Europe. The story was not, sadly, very unusual: across the globe, children are often the protagonists of gruesome tales that see cartels of traffickers and smugglers preying on their vulnerability.
These children are the victims of what scholars and pundits call ‘irregular migration’ – “movements that take place outside the regulatory norms of sending, transit, or receiving countries”, in the words of the UN’s International Organization for Migration. Outrage is an appropriate response to their mistreatment. But we should understand that children’s vulnerability often provides a justification for ever more intrusive and authoritarian border security and migration policies.
Is children’s irregular migration really only about exploitation and subordination? Or does human smuggling (and even trafficking) provide minors on the move with protection and opportunity for mobility?
