• Unpacking the Myths around Human Smuggling in and from East Africa

    This paper finds that migrant smuggling within and from the Horn of Africa continues to occur, with new smuggling routes opening in response to irregular migration related risks and law enforcement responses to migrant smuggling on traditionally popular routes. Smuggling as part of the mixed migration flows are more and more common, particularly as travel across borders becomes more dangerous. 4Mi data shows that at least 73% of migrants are using smugglers for at least part of their journey. The key findings from the research explore the dynamics and trends of this elicit trade:

    Migrant smuggling within and from the Horn of Africa remains a vibrant business, and new smuggling routes continue to open - largely in response to political and economic factors, migration risks, and law enforcement efforts to curtail certain routes.
    Many smugglers are young men who enter the smuggling trade because they have limited employment opportunities in their home countries, and smuggling activities are more lucrative than other job opportunities in their home countries.
    Across all three major routes leading out of the region, smuggling networks are organised. Some networks resembling loose, horizontal networks in which smugglers work collaboratively across national borders. In these networks, smugglers tend to hand over the migrants at borders to new smugglers operating the subsequent leg/s of the journey. Other networks, particularly Libya-based smuggling networks along the North-western route to Europe are increasingly hierarchical, with smuggling kingpins dominating the smuggling business from Libya, and Horn of Africa smugglers playing important, but usually subordinate, positions to the Libyan kingpins.
    For most smugglers operating in the region, migrant smuggling is the primary criminal enterprise. Predominantly on the Eastern, and North-western routes, smugglers may also be involved in other criminal activities, such as trafficking in persons, 1 kidnapping, and extortion.
    Government officials are reported to be involved, directly and indirectly, in migrant smuggling operations. Without this collaboration smugglers would likely encounter significant obstacles to conducting successful migrant smuggling ventures.
    With a reported pre-departure average expenditure for smuggling services of USD 1,036 per migrant, 2 the smuggling business remains lucrative for those involved. With a reported average expenditure of USD 2,371 3 per migrant on bribes and extortion, it is clear that many other individuals, including border guards, militia, kidnappers, and traffickers, are also profiting from the flows of smuggled migrants within and from the Horn of Africa.
    The migration flows within and from the Horn of Africa are mixed, 4 with asylum seekers and refugees being smuggled alongside economic migrants.
    Various political and socio-economic factors motivate irregular migration from the Horn of Africa region. The level of migration is highly reactive to political and other pressures, as well as national migration policy. Movement from the region is both in response to short-term crises, as well as rooted in long-term factors.
    Most smuggled migrants from the Horn of Africa are young, single men; however, the number of female migrants is reportedly increasing. Also reportedly increasing is the number of unaccompanied Horn of Africa minors travelling irregularly to Europe, the Gulf States and Middle East, and Southern Africa.
    Some migrants initiate the first leg of travel, and navigate one or more subsequent segments of travel without the aid of smugglers. These migrants tend to pay smugglers, where they are used, for each individual part of the journey, using cash or informal money transfer systems, such as hawala systems (informal financial transfers outside of the traditional banking system). 5 Other migrants use the services of smugglers to take them from their home country all the way to the destination country - some of these migrants pay for the entire journey in advance.
    The paper finds that paying for the entire smuggling journey in advance does not reduce the vulnerability of migrants to exploitation and abuse during the journey.
    In terms of volume, the most popular smuggling route is the Eastern route to the Gulf States and the Middle East. Horn of Africa migrants are also still being smuggled in large numbers to Europe, and to Southern Africa, particularly South Africa.

    http://www.regionalmms.org/index.php/research-publications/feature-articles/item/70-unpacking-the-myths-around-human-smuggling-in-and-from

    #smuggling #passeurs #Corne_de_l'Afrique #migrations #asile #réfugiés #frontières #business

    Lien vers le rapport :
    http://regionalmms.org/images/briefing/RMMS%20BriefingPaper6%20-%20Unpacking%20the%20Myths.pdf

    –-> intéressant pour analyser le discours, probablement aussi pour les chiffres (pas lu en détail le rapport), mais attention, car financé par la coopération au développement suisse et allemande... du coup, voilà... c’est probablement un papier qui légitime encore plus la fermeture des frontières...

    Voici des tableaux qui, je pense, suggèrent que j’ai raison à être un peu dubitative face à ce rapport :

    Où veulent aller les personnes en fuite ? En Europe pour la majorité, évidemment...

    Qui sont les facilitateurs ? Les passeurs, obviously...

    Pourquoi fuient-ils ? Pour des raisons économiques avant tout, évidemment...


    #flèches

    Un tableau intéressant sur le nombre des #décès :


    #mourir_aux_frontières #morts #chiffres #statistiques
    C’est la première fois que je vois les chiffres de personnes mortes aux frontières de la Corne de l’Afrique

    Et sur les #viols / #violences_sexuelles :

    cc @reka