{"id":34995,"date":"2017-10-24T06:00:22","date_gmt":"2017-10-23T19:00:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/?p=34995"},"modified":"2017-10-23T13:28:56","modified_gmt":"2017-10-23T02:28:56","slug":"global-perspectives-on-people-smugglers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/global-perspectives-on-people-smugglers\/","title":{"rendered":"Global perspectives on people smugglers"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Early on 2 September 2015, 16 Syrian refugees on a remote Turkish beach hopped onto a small boat built for eight passengers. Each had paid a people smuggler around US$6,000 for passage from Turkey to the Greek island of Kos. Among the passengers were Abdullah Kurdi, his wife Rehana and their young sons Aylan and Galib. Four kilometres into the journey, the boat sank.<\/p>\n

The next day, images<\/a> of the lifeless body of a three-year-old Syrian refugee, face down on a Turkish beach, spread virally across the world. An image showing a Turkish official carrying the boy, Aylan Kurdi, from the beach soon followed. Within hours, the pictures became synonymous with the Syrian war and provided a human face to Europe\u2019s migration crisis. The photos sparked a global response.<\/p>\n

In the days that followed, several media outlets<\/a> began reporting that Aylan\u2019s father, Abdullah, was in fact the captain of the boat: he was allegedly a people smuggler. Moreover, he was accused of steering the boat at the time it capsized. For many, Abdullah was transformed from grieving father to evil people smuggler<\/a>.<\/p>\n

However, several facts remain. Abdullah had lost his family while trying to flee war, to find a safe place for his wife and children. In all the media coverage, and the associated political commentary, the complexity of the people-smuggling problem was lost or ignored. Public opinion had reduced the people-smuggling phenomenon to a simple equation: \u2018People smugglers are evil.\u2019 The alternative perspective on this sad chain of events is that it\u2019s symptomatic of the complexity of today\u2019s global people-smuggling and migration policy challenge.<\/p>\n

Today ASPI released its latest strategy report, People smugglers globally, 2017<\/a><\/em>. The report draws together the work of authors from multiple disciplines to explore the worldwide phenomenon of people smuggling. Much has already been published on irregular migration from the perspective of the migrant, but ASPI\u2019s latest strategy focuses on people-smuggling syndicates globally. It provides a concise analysis of the various operators in the world\u2019s people-smuggling hotspots, with accompanying policy recommendations for interventions.<\/p>\n

The demand for irregular migration services is rising dramatically in source and transit countries across the globe. Limited economic opportunities caused by such factors as ballooning youth populations, endemic corruption and unskilled labour surpluses are creating waves of irregular economic migrants who, under normal circumstances, have no likelihood of being accepted into formal migration programs.<\/p>\n

Declining security conditions in Syria, Afghanistan, Central America, North Korea, Iraq and Iran are also creating mass migration crises of a magnitude that we\u2019ve not seen since the end of World War II.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, destination countries\u2019 refugee and migration programs can\u2019t meet the demand from those who want to migrate. Out of these fundamentals rises a growing demand for alternative migration pathways.<\/p>\n

In Australian political and policy circles, there\u2019s no ambiguity in the statement \u2018People smuggling is a crime\u2019. For most Australians, the prevailing perspective seems to be that, regardless of the people smugglers\u2019 motivation or role within a syndicate, people smuggling is a criminal activity. However, in many countries, irregular migrants and their communities see people smugglers in a much more positive light. They\u2019re perceived as offering a service that allows their customers to access a product that would otherwise not be available to them.<\/p>\n

In Africa and the Americas, people-smuggling operators bring much-needed, and otherwise unavailable, income into the community. In such places, even when people smuggling is criminalised, there\u2019s no guarantee that the views of the community or irregular migrants will change.<\/p>\n

The report finds that the decentralised yet globally networked nature of people-smuggling activities, fuelled by unprecedented global people movements, ensures that this challenge will continue to be highly resilient in the face of policy interventions. However, through analysis of the organisation of those networks, as provided by this report, policymakers can develop a better understanding of the various contextual elements of people-smuggling operations that are vulnerable to disruption.<\/p>\n

ASPI\u2019s report makes the following recommendations:<\/p>\n