E/CN.4/2002/94 page 11 B. Matters requiring the Special Rapporteur’s attention Trafficking in migrants 31. In her report on her official visit to Ecuador (E/CN.4/2002/94/Add.1), the Special Rapporteur details how trafficking in persons comes about in Ecuador and its effects on its victims and migrants’ families. Generally speaking, besides what she witnessed in Ecuador, the reports the Special Rapporteur received in 2001 reveal the extreme forms of abuse perpetrated by those engaged in the transnational organized crime of smuggling migrants all over the world. She is concerned about the situation of women caught up in trafficking, who are subjected to sexual abuse by members of the criminal gangs but also report instances of abuse by State employees when they are intercepted in transit countries. She is also alarmed at the use of illegal immigration channels by unaccompanied minors who purchase false identities or whose exit permits are handled by the trafficking networks, who also face abuse at the networks’ hands. 32. The Special Rapporteur has received reports of offences associated with the smuggling of migrants, in particular accounts of the deaths of hundreds of migrants being smuggled by sea. In 2001, to mention just two cases, she was informed of the deaths of over 80 people in the Gulf of Aden and 356 people on an overcrowded boat that sank off the coast of Indonesia. She has also received reports of large numbers of migrants dying of suffocation while being smuggled by land or sea. 33. Migrants’ families in various countries have also informed the Special Rapporteur that migrants appear to have vanished in transit countries. It is extremely difficult to ascertain the whereabouts of migrants using illegal migration channels, since they travel under assumed identities of which their families are unaware. According to reports received by the Special Rapporteur, migrants are often detained, tried and sentenced under names and nationalities other than their own, and this makes it difficult for their families to trace them. Other migrants are reported to have disappeared and died under similar circumstances as they tried to cross dangerous borders or were caught up in traffic accidents while being transported by the smugglers. 34. The Special Rapporteur is also concerned at the undue advantage taken of the families of migrants using the smuggling networks, especially the debt bondage to which they are subject in the country of origin. A lack of official means of obtaining loans in many countries where migration begins encourages the development of informal lending networks charging interest at usurious rates. Informal lending networks grow up alongside the smuggling networks, supplying the money that the migrants pay the smugglers. They create a vicious circle of debt, leaving houses, land and goods mortgaged, and the only hope of paying off what is owed is with the earnings remitted, for the most part, by migrants working illegally abroad. 35. The Special Rapporteur notes that a good many countries have not come up with an effective strategy to combat the spread of illegal migrant smuggling networks or made trafficking a punishable offence under their law. National legislation on the subject is still embryonic, and most States are not parties to the United Nations Convention against