Addressing existing governmental policies, this “working paper” introduces issues involved in the analysis of the response of European governments to the problems of human trafficking and smuggling. By way of introducing their forthcoming larger report, after contending that trafficking and smuggling are far from recent phenomena, the authors maintain that these issues have recently become the subject matter of much international attention. Arguing that the hinterland and borders of the European Union are permeated by several trafficking routes, this paper claims that in the year 2000, an anti-trafficking agenda was implemented under the auspices of the European Union and other organizations. The bulk of this “work in progress” focuses on the varied ways that trafficking and smuggling are defined. After referring to trafficking and smuggling as the recruitment, transporting, transferring, and harboring of persons by threats of abduction, force, fraud, deception, or coercion, the authors briefly sketch an outline for the rest of their forthcoming report. The authors contend that the final version of this report will outline how the border enforcement and anti-trafficking agendas in Europe have led to the need to question human rights laws in general.