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Evil people smuggling trade reaps $35b

23 June 20170 comments

People smugglers are profiting to the tune $US35 billion a year as they cash in on the global refugee crisis, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM).

And the heinous trade is contributing to most of the deaths occurring in the Mediterranean as migrants try to reach Europe, IOM head William Lacy Swing said.

Large numbers of desperate people fleeing conflict, repression and humanitarian crises in Africa and elsewhere are dying as they attempt to reach Europe via Libya, lured by smugglers as they wait in detention centers.

The death toll of people crossing the Mediterranean has reached 1,700 so far this year before the northern summer has even begun – when many more often make the journey – compared to 3,700 for all of 2015 and 5,000 last year, Mr Lacy Swing told media this week.

“We need to be careful because those are the people we know who died, how many other bodies are submerged in the Mediterranean or buried in the sands of the Sahara?” he said.

“That’s the tragedy and this is why we are so concerned to try to caution migrants about smugglers. The smugglers are really the big problem.

“It’s about $35 billion a year that people smugglers make and we know they’re making lots of money across the Mediterranean,” Mr Lacy Swing said.

People smuggling now represents the third-largest business for international criminals, after weapons and drug trafficking, a recent Interpol briefing paper revealed.

Libya has become a major departing point for migrants from Africa, where lawless gangs operate after the fall of dictator Muammar Gaddafi and migrants say conditions at government-run migrant centres are terrible.

After visiting Libya in March, Mr Lacy Swing said his organisation was ready to return international staff to Libya to work at migrant centers but has so far not been allowed to do so by the United Nations.

The IOM and the UNCHR have presented plans to boost operations in Libya.

But Europe’s migrant crisis has been aggravated by anti-migrant sentiment, fueled by populist politics and suspicions that some of those fleeing terrorism might be terrorists themselves.

Mr Lacy Swing urged governments to attempt to address the root causes of migration — conflicts, water shortages and big disparities between rich and poor countries.

“In my lifetime I have never known a situation quite like today, because you have nine armed conflicts and humanitarian emergencies from West Africa to the Himalayas,” he said.

Mr Lacy Swing said migration was not “an issue to be solved” but a human reality that has to be managed.

“We know that historically, migration has always been overwhelmingly positive,” he said.

 

Laurie Nowell
AMES Australia Senior Journalist