Transnational Organised Crime, Border Policing, and Refugees

Abstract

The evolution of transnational policing poses important questions for criminologists. In particular, are those targeted by transnational policing practices necessarily engaged in transnational organised crime? This chapter considers Australia’s anti-people smuggling regime, which is designed to prevent refugees from entering Australia without permission to claim asylum. The rationale for this regime is that people smugglers operate according to a specific business model, that smuggling operations put asylum seekers at risk, and that measures such as indefinite detention in offshore ‘processing’ facilities are necessary to protect the integrity of Australia’s borders. The chapter challenges the assertion that people smuggling is an egregious form of transnational crime, and argues that the anti-smuggling regime underpins a system of institutional abuse that compounds the harms already experienced by refugees.