Article from WeChat public account:Gu Yu Data – Tencent News (ID: guyudata), author: Sean, Mu Dong, Fang Li, from FIG title: Oriental IC
The investigation of the container smuggling case in the UK is still going on. It is expected that the identification of the victims will last for about a week. As more Vietnamese families identified the victims, the police overturned the speculation that the victims were originally from China. On October 29th, British media reported that 25 of the 39 victims were Vietnamese. The news has not been confirmed by the police.
No matter where the victims come from, they risk their lives and travel for months, but they end up with adult tragedies. This is heartbreaking and thought-provoking.
Crisis road to smuggling
Smuggling this road, the crisis is heavy, the danger is alive, full of silent human tragedies, but illegal immigrants are still going on.
The International Organization for Migration’s Focus on Global Trafficking Trends: 2006-2016, Victims of Human Trafficking Data reports that between 2014 and 2016, 77% of human trafficking victims worldwide experienced cross-border trafficking.
From 2015 to 2019, the number of illegal immigrants in the Mediterranean region remained high. In 2016, more than 5,000 people died in the history of crossing the Mediterranean to Europe, a record high. UNHCR pointed out that this is related to the unpredictable weather on the sea, the decline in the quality of smuggling vessels and the way in which smugglers try to avoid patrol boats.
The number of illegal immigrants in Africa is the highest, but the number of deaths in the past five years has decreased year by year. In 2015, there were 826 illegal immigrants killed in Asia. In October 2019, this figure fell to 34.
From the death of illegal immigrants, we may be able to see the dangers they have encountered on the road. Statistics from the International Immigration Data Analysis Center of the International Organization for Migration show that, in 2019, drowning became the main cause of illegal immigration, followed by traffic accidents and diseases. Most illegal immigrants killed in the Mediterranean region died from drowning.
Although the number of illegal immigrants arriving in Europe is decreasing, smuggling of migrants remains a lucrative and widespread criminal activity in organized crime in the European Union. According to the Europol report, immigrant smugglers are becoming more organized, and they have established complex professional networks that operate from the source of illegal immigration to destination countries for transnational operations.
European Interpol has organized a European Union smuggling of migrants crime network consisting of several key figures, the network of organizers or responsible persons at key migration points, and responsible for internal coordination of the overall network. The leader of the smuggling of immigration networks is usually remotely controlled, keeping in touch with only a few core members.
Local or regional leaders determine the price of services such as convenience, car booking, scheduled flights, and other coordination activities. These people are heads of small organizations operating at the local level and are responsible for providing travel and other services for illegal immigrants in their territory, which continue until the immigration is transferred to the next area where the talent is over.
Low level collaborators are used as drivers, crew, scouts or recruitment agents. These people usually operate as part of the network for a limited period of time and are exchanged on a regular basis. Immigration smuggling networks are very flexible and rely on supporting members to adapt to changing business needs when necessary.
File fraud is a key factor in the smuggling of migrants. The forgery documents provided by smugglers allow more irregular immigrants to enter the EU and move within the EU, and can also change from irregular immigration status to legal resident status.
In addition, criminals use complex but unsafe methods to smuggle migrants across borders. More and more illegal immigrants are hidden in dedicated closed cars, even in containers for trucks, trucks, cars and freight trains. .
Human trafficking, the nightmare of illegal immigrants
Although many illegal immigrants are voluntary, they are likely to suffer kidnappings and ransom claims, and even torture and sexual abuse, and become victims of human trafficking during long smuggling.
Even if they successfully arrive at their destinations, the barriers to language and the gaps between unfamiliar societies, their labor bargaining space will be greatly reduced, and unscrupulous employers may use them to conduct physical extortion and other forms of exploitation.
In 2016, the number of victims of human trafficking recorded by the United Nations Drug and Crime Agency was close to 25,000, more than any year in the past 13 years. Of the 97 countries in the statistical range, more than 254 people in each country are trafficked, the highest since 2003.
The victims of illegal trafficking will suffer from different forms of slavery, such as sexual exploitation, forced labor, forced begging and even selling organs, and become “modern slaves” in the civilized world.
The 2016 Pulitzer Prize “Public Service Award” was awarded to the Associated Press’s four female journalists who tracked the “sweat and sweat seafood factory” in Southeast Asia and recorded foreign workers trafficked to Thailand for transnational traffic. Fishing on some remote islands in Thailand or Indonesia, suffering from brutal incidents of severe exploitation, abuse and even murder.
The United Nations Drug and Crime Agency’s statistics show that trafficked persons are mainly forced to serve in developed countries and regions, while developing countries and regions are more engaged in slavery or forced to beg. There are many victims of minors.
The Global Trafficking in Persons Report of 2018 shows that between 2016 and the report period, the proportion of female victims was 49%, followed by underage women, and the proportion was 23%. It was shocking.
Even so, in the eyes of the smugglers, the new continent is a magnificence of pink, a hot spot for the Nuggets, and a fast lane to change the fate. As long as there is an objective development gap between countries, the black industrial chain of smuggling will not be cut off, and the phenomenon of illegal immigration will not die. With the strengthening of regulatory technology, illegal immigrants may choose a more dangerous smuggling road in order to avoid risks. I hope that this smuggling tragedy in the UK will alert more people.
References:
International Organization for Migration, Focusing on Global Trafficking Trends: 2006-2016, Victims of Human Trafficking
United Nations Drug and Crime Agency Global Trafficking Report 2018
European Interpol “European Union Immigration Smuggling” “EU Immigration Smuggling Center (2017-2018) Activity Report”
International Organization for Migration International Immigration Data Analysis Center
Article from WeChat public account:Gu Yu Data – Tencent News (ID: guyudata), author: Sean, Mu Dong Fang Li