Europeans Dismantle People-Smuggling Ring

In this article, European police discovered a criminal operation involving smuggling immigrants from Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Syria and Turkey into the European Union.  An operation to stop the smuggling done by the Europol included searching 117 houses and 1,200 police officers early Tuesday morning. The recent crackdown on this crime brought attention to the lingering problem of people-smuggling. Desperate immigrants are seeking help from these criminal gangs to take a route from Turkey and the Balkans.

According to the article people smuggling is very profitable and has a low detection rate because of weak legislation. The International Organization for Migration said in a 2011 report that the activity earns organized criminal groups three to ten billion a year worldwide. This week’s sting on people-smuggling is one of the largest efforts against it at a European level. It’s also an indication that countries are using their resources together to help fight international organized crime gangs.

            Some people do not know the difference between people-smuggling and human trafficking but there is a huge difference. People-smuggling is when illegal immigrants voluntarily pay criminal gangs to help them enter into a state where they are not a citizen or resident. Human Trafficking is the act of exploiting people and sometimes involves forced labor and prostitution. However, people-trafficking is still a dangerous act. Migrants are often smuggled in inhuman ways like in the floor of buses or trucks, in freight trains or on boats.

The criminal gangs working on these smuggling routes have been known to be innovative and flexible when the threat of detection occurs. Greek police broke up a smuggling ring in 2007 and that was transporting Albanian migrants across a dangerous mountain route. The smugglers then switched to other routes from Croatia, Montenegro and Serbia to Italy, Hungary and Slovenia. Desired destinations of illegal immigrants are France, Britain, Spain, Italy and Belgium. The Europol reported 103 arrests and seized cell phones, computers, cash, and a semi-automatic rifle with ammunition.

In November, eight suspects were arrested by British Immigration officers. They were suspected in helping Iranian migrants reach Britain from mainland Europe. There were also 11 other arrests by Spain’s Guardia Civil in Madrid and Alicante. It might not sound like it but people-smuggling is not a victimless crime. Other crimes are linked to people-smuggling like identity fraud, human trafficking, and corruption and money laundering.

I believe that the government in these European countries should work on putting forth stronger legislation that can tackle the problem of people-smuggling. There also needs to be more education about the problem because many people do not think it is harming people. But these desperate immigrants are taken advantage of by these organized criminal gangs.

Morgan Crosier

02/01/13

4:53 pm

http://rendezvous.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/01/31/europeans-dismantle-people-smuggling-ring/