Recently, a lot of attention has understandably been given to the plight of the thousands of people attempting to cross the Mediterranean Sea to reach Europe. Many are fleeing poverty and war, and all are hoping for a better life. Their journeys are generally arranged by brokers and smugglers, vast criminal networks ranging across Africa, the Middle East and Europe. The crossing is difficult and full of danger.

The situation has met with an outpouring of public concern but also raises difficult questions about how to deal with this kind of organised immigration crime. A variety of different responses have been proposed ranging from coordinated asylum policies to military intervention and there will always be divergent views on the best immigration policy.

But this crisis has also led to confusion in some quarters between the smuggling of migrants and human trafficking. For too long in the past, human trafficking was incorrectly viewed through the prism of immigration with victims arrested as illegal immigrants without investigation into those who exploited them. That has begun to slowly change as understanding among politicians and frontline officers grows. But as concerns about immigration remain high on the agenda we must be vigilant against the conflation of these two issues.

Immigration policy exists to regulate who is able to come to and stay in this country and there is a divergent range of opinion about the best way to deal with it. Tackling the exploitation that is central to human trafficking is a matter of international law and should be something we can all agree on.

So what is the difference between human trafficking and migrant smuggling?

The key difference between migrant smuggling and human trafficking is exploitation. Whilst a person smuggled to the UK may endure hardship on the journey – and undoubtedly smugglers capitalise upon and financially exploit the desperate desire of some to start a new life elsewhere – their plight ends on arrival. The smuggler is only interested in making money by bringing them here and has no interest in what happens next. Smuggling is a crime of facilitating illegal immigration.

By contrast, a trafficker brings their victim to the UK for the purpose of exploiting them. They could be exploited through prostitution or forced labour or in a variety of other ways. A person who is trafficked may come to this country illegally but they may also be an EU citizen or hold a valid visa. Indeed, each year many British people are trafficked within the UK. Human trafficking is a crime of exploitation not immigration.

There is no doubt that the dangers faced by those rescued from the Mediterranean are many and serious. Many hundreds of people have already died attempting to make this journey this year. Smugglers, like traffickers, often take advantage of people’s fears, hopes and aspirations as the recently published Facebook adverts demonstrate. But as we seek to raise awareness of human trafficking and improve the rates of identifying victims and prosecuting traffickers it is important that the perpetual confusion of human trafficking, migrant smuggling and illegal immigration is brought to an end. Each crime and injustice requires a tailored solution which is different. The words we use matter.

For more detailed information we recommend the UN’s pages on human trafficking and migrant smuggling. The UN also has a comprehensive list of the indicators a person may have been trafficked.