Traffickers who actively recruit victims use traditional immigration as a way to conceal their criminal intentions. With the false promise of compensated work in another country, traffickers are more easily able to get people to cooperate with illegal border crossing. For example, a woman may knowingly agree to be smuggled into a country to work in the sex industry or as a nanny, but she may be unaware that the traffickers will keep all of the money she makes, restrict and control her movement, and subject her to physical and sexual violence. In other instances, an individual may migrate on her or his own, legally or illegally, identify a work opportunity upon arriving in the destination country and become a victim of trafficking due to the illegal practices of an employer.
It has been suggested that more stringent border entry regulations force migrants to use illegal channels more often which can increase their risk of being exploited. Another perspective is that there is a need for additional anti-trafficking legislation and that the enforcement of the laws that are in place is inconsistent across points of entry, thereby reducing the effectiveness of these anti-trafficking laws.