Human trafficking

Human trafficking

Human trafficking is a truly global phenomenon, which affect almost all countries in the world. Two thirds of victims are woman, as nearly 4/5 of the victims were subjected to sexual exploitation.

Sudden geopolitical or economic shifts, such as the end of the Cold War, the integration of China into the world economy or violent conflicts like the Yugoslav Wars, wars in Africa, Asia, etc. - create profit opportunities for human traffickers.

The end of the Cold War was key in precipitating one of the best documented human trafficking flows in the world: the movement of Eastern European women into West European sex markets. Today, women of more nationalities have been trafficked into Europe than to any other known destination. In addition, new (previously undetected) nationalities have increasingly been detected among trafficking victims in Europe.

With the end of the Cold War, a large number of labourers of all sorts moved from Eastern to Western Europe. Some of these labourers were or became sex workers, and not all came voluntarily. In 2005/2006, 51% of human trafficking victims detected in Europe were from the Balkans or the former Soviet Union, in particular Romania, Bulgaria, Ukraine, the Russian Federation and the Republic of Moldova. But this appears to be changing,as women trafficked from other parts of the world are becoming more prominent. In many instances, women, some of whom may have once been victims themselves, play an important role in exploiting the victims. The traffickers are often of the same nationality as the victim, although there are important exceptions. The techniques used to recruit victims seem to vary by source country: in Eastern Europe, for example, victims may be collected through employment agencies, while in West Africa, family and social networks are utilized. As a general rule, groups engaging in trafficking for sexual exploitation are small, although there have been exceptions.

Smuggling of migrants

Due to global inequalities and restrictive immigration policies, many workers from developing regions are willing to borrow heavily from their communities and risk their lives to access opportunities in the more affluent countries. Since they cannot do this legally, they often employ organized criminals to assist them, and become more likely to do so as immigration controls tighten. Because these services are illegal, those who provide them have tremendous power over their charges, and abuses are commonplace, particularly when the movement is clandestine. The main smuggling flows are: from Latin America to North America and from Africa to Europe.

Latin America to North America

The USA hosts the second-largest Spanish speaking population in the world, including more than 9 million people born in Mexico. Over a third of the population speaks Spanish in the border states of California, Texas and New Mexico. Combined with the fact that some 150 million Latin Americans live on less than two dollars per day, this expatriate population exerts a powerful pull on the poorer states to the south. immigrants can expect to greatly improve their standard of living without having to master a new language or leave behind their cultural group. As a result, an estimated 80% of the illegal immigrant population in the United States is from Latin America. Most clandestine entrants to the USA come across the Mexican land border, most of these entrants are Mexican, and over 90% of illegal Mexican migrants are assisted by professional smugglers.

Although migrants have been detected travelling by rail, on foot and even using dedicated tunnels, most of the migrants are smuggled in trucks. The smuggling generally takes the migrants some distance from the border. Smuggled migrants may be collected in “stash houses”, either before the crossing or once inside the USA. The smugglers group the migrants in these houses in order to receive the rest of the smuggling fee. This is normally paid by migrants’ relatives in the country of origin or in the USA. While delaying payment until the crossing is complete provides some security that migrants will not simply be dumped in the desert, it also transforms the migrants into hostages, the collateral on which the transaction is secured. In Mexico, non-Mexican migrants have been held for ransom as well. While some sophisticated operations have been detected, it appears that a large number of small groups handle the bulk of the trade.

Africa to Europe

Europe hosts the largest African-born population outside Africa, as remittances form a significant share of GDP in many African countries. Most migrant smuggling routes involve long land passages and short maritime hops to European islands. Both parts of this voyage are hazardous, and the migrants are subject to exploitation throughout their journey. The routes taken have changed dramatically in response to enforcement action. For example, the Canary Islands grew rapidly until 2006, at which point enforcement pushed the flow toward Lampedusa, until a cooperation agreement between Italy and the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya in May 2009 abruptly shut this route down. After beginning of Arabic Spring 2010-2012 and war in Syria, the routes has been changed and now more and more migrant are smuggling via Turkey to Balkans countries with finally destination – richer countries in West Europe.

Migrants pay more than €1,000 to cross northern border of Turkey. Such amounts received smugglers to pass migrants to beaches of Mediterranean countries.