Smuggling Study Warns of Rise in ‘Human Cargo’

In a report to President Clinton, an interagency working group on the smuggling of illegal immigrants to the United States has painted a grim picture of what it calls a “growing trade in human cargo” and recommended a more aggressive global effort to combat it.

The report, the result of a nine-month study by officials of the State Department, Justice Department, Immigration and Naturalization Service, Coast Guard, CIA and FBI describes widespread official corruption and lax law enforcement in several countries as facilitating the flow of hundreds of thousands of people through highly lucrative smuggling pipelines that often lead to the United States. A copy of the report, which was sent to Clinton last month, was obtained by the Washington Post.

While antismuggling efforts by the United States and some other countries have begun to have an effect, “a great deal more remains to be done,” the report says. However, its prescriptions of augmenting U.S. enforcement capability overseas and expanding training programs in foreign countries are running up against increasingly severe budget constraints, administration officials said.

“Viewed globally, trafficking in illegal migrants is an enormous problem,” the study says. “This growing trade in human cargo earns smugglers billions of dollars in annual profits.”