The protocol recognizes that transnational criminal organizations also use the smuggling of migrants to further numerous other criminal activities and reflects concern that the smuggling of migrants can endanger the lives of individual migrants and entails great expense for the international community. Moreover, the protocol reaffirms the need for UN member states to give high priority to preventing the smuggling of migrants because of the links of such activity with transnational organized crime and other criminal activities. The protocol stresses the need for international cooperation and the exchange of information at the national, regional, and global levels. General provisions of the protocol related to the smuggling of migrants by land, air, and sea are outlined.