The two are inextricably linked. How, pray, could it be otherwise? (I’m talking mainly about Europe here, you have a special case in SA and, to a lesser extent, in the USA, those of you from those countries.) Human trafficking is a US$ 44 billion a year business
Human trafficking is a small industry by comparison, worth under $44bn but arguably the most pernicious. According to the UN, up to 27 million people are now held in slavery, far more than at the peak of the African slave trade. The majority of the victims this time are Asian women.
Each and every illegal immigrant has entered into a conspiracy to break the law.* The people they are dealing with make their money regardless of the doom of the illegal immigrant, whether it be a sweatshop in UK, a brothel in france or a Pizza parlour, fer Pete’s sake. All of these are part of the black economy, don’t forget. No return to the country of destination, no income tax, NICs or VAT and, unless you’re a cabinet minister, employing or dealing with illegal immigrants can put you in jail – or worse; ask the family of Karen Reed.
It can be a deadly crossing. Last September a Chechen woman tried to enter Europe with her four young children from hills on the Ukrainian side of the border, just a few miles from the smuggler’s village.
Walking alone she lost her bearings in heavy rain and falling temperatures. Panicked, she left behind her three daughters, aged between 6 and 13, to search for help. Polish border guards found her and her two-year-old son wandering aimlessly. But by the time they reached the girls, all had died from hypothermia.
Just one reason why illegal immigration is not a subject for humour. Here’s another:
The nearly 400 migrants who thought they were sailing to Europe from the West African nation of Guinea ended up ill, stranded and broke in Mauritania. Not that the gang smuggling them much cared. By the time the engines on the migrants’ rust-eaten vessel, Marine I, failed far from European shores, the gang had long since cleared hundreds of thousands of euros in cash.
Link (The article is a re-print from the International Herald Tribune.)
I could print thousands more, but you get the idea. Oh, OK, then, one more:
Here they were put to work in pizza outlets to pay off their debt of up to £10,000. The gang are thought to have made several million pounds from the operation.
Evil men, (and women, though not many,) make their fortunes from this trade and use the same links, connections and routes to smuggle drugs, tobacco, alcohol, counterfeit goods, and young women to be forced into prostitution. (Ever bought a cheap DVD? Handbag? Hermes or Burberry scarf?) More sinister yet, the links are also used to smuggle arms, including materials for weapons of mass destruction (WMD). (You think you’ve seen terrorism? Maintain the hope that you are not in the city selected by terrorists for the first attack using any form of WMD.)
Organized crime groups in the next century will control an even larger share of the world’s economy because the illicit share of the world’s economy grows annually. Illegal businesses are highly profitable and remain untaxed.
The impact of transnational organized crime is not uniform. Organized crime can destabilize even major economies such as Japan and Italy, as the 1990s has shown, but the costs are even more devastating for transitional states. Organized crime groups often supplant the state in societies in transition to democracy, their representatives assume key positions in the incipient legislatures which need to craft the new legal framework for the society. Key officials are targeted by the international crime groups. Judges, often with salaries under $500 a month, and police who earn even less, are highly susceptible to bribes. Cabinet ministers cost more but are worth the investment.
The former Communist states with collapsing economies, weak governments and limited law enforcement have been fertile ground for the growth of organized crime. The rise of organized crime in the successor states to the former Soviet Union and its international expansion has attracted the most attention but their experience is far from unique. Many countries in Eastern Europe face serious organized crime problems. China, with a long history of domestic crime groups (triads) is increasingly acknowledging the pervasiveness of these groups in the booming economy of Southern China and their inroads in other regions.
Illegal immigrants are both criminals and victims. Victims of the societies in the shitholes they come from, Somalia, Bangladesh, Rural China, failing ex-communist States – pick your own example – and the crime they commit in conspiring to break, and actually breaking immigration laws contributes to the FBI estimated $1 trillion a year (£615 billion) profits generated by global organised crime – equivalent to the entire gross domestic product of Australia.
Not a subject for humour, or to be made light of. If a blog is to deal with the attitudes of host country, immigrants, and integration, then I suggest that, as an author’s comment suggested, writing about the travails of legal immigrants might be a better way to go about it. This subject is no joke.
Links, in case I missed any above.
*In UK criminal law, conspiracy is defined by the agreement of two or more people for at least one of them to commit an offence. The A Dictionary of Law summarises the mens rea of the offence as being “knowledge of the facts by at least two conspirators”.
Read more at Suite101: Conspiracy Law and Agreement to Commit a Crime: Development of English Law From Mulcahy v R to The Criminal Law Act http://crime.suite101.com/article.cfm/conspiracy-law-and-agreement-to-commit-a-crime#ixzz0mmH5tvX2
Boadicea's Chariot 
I blame the intransigence of the Western nations. Had they got to grips with it from the start, deported illegals out of hand to any and every location, had they executed people smugglers the word would soon have gone round and economic migration would never have taken on a life of its own.
Exactly the same with piracy, had the navies of the world merely sunk the pirates boats and shelled the E African ports it would have stopped instantly!
Fools in the West are strictly architects of their own disasters for which the poor sodding taxpayer gets the bill and some poor sodding immigrants pay with their lives. It will take serious lurches to the right to get to grips.
As for the death rate, one of the main reason they leave their own countries is that they won’t control their birth rate, death by immigration/emigration is a bizarre choice but one they make themselves, nobody makes them leave.
As for whether the whole thing is a joke, suffice it to say I always thought universal adult suffrage a very unsound idea in the first place, you may make your own extrapolations between the two!
I see from the rush to comment on this post that most people prefer to keep their heads in the sand, and their behinds in the air. Hardly surprising that the West keeps getting kicked in the …
While I can smile at a light hearted poem, I am aware that the reality is even harsher than your examples here show and that ‘illegal transportation’ includes more than humans, but also drugs and weapons.
I have to agree with Christina, that we are the architects of own disasters in that the refusal to look at reality will be the West’s downfall.
No, not so in my case, Boadicea. See my comment on Brendano’s latest.
Sorry Araminta – but I don’t read such posts. I respect people’s right to remove whatever comments they choose, and am not prepared or interested in going into a discussion as to why they have been removed.
I have no sympathy for illegal immigrants, I’m afraid. And Britain, like most European countries, cannot afford them at the moment. Why we give any hand-outs to them is beyond me. As I have said before, these people pay thousands to people traffickers but arrive penniless in Greece, Italy, France, Britain, etc and expect to be looked after. They must be deported as soon as possible to get the message across to their fellow-countrymen. Apparently those who do make it to a western European country are too ashamed to admit to their families at home that they have no job and are living on the breadline, so the truth never gets back to their countries of origin. These people do not realise that they have very little to offer a modern, western country.
Ceuta, the Spanish enclave in Morocco, is surrounded by high, barbed-wire fences to keep out the would-be immigrants. There is a camp close by the border, another Sangatte. I read that Morocco has a rather tough policy on illegal immigrants found near its Saharan border. They are escorted over the border and left to fend for themselves to get home. Why should any country be forced to provide upkeep for uninvited guests?
Bravo: had you published this as anything other than a justification of your stance on my post; then my reaction, and perhaps that of others would be entirely different.
So do I Boadicea; that was not my point.
Personally I know several ex-illegal immigrants who have contributed a great deal of immigrant brio to their adopted country and are now millionaires. Of course Bravo was careful to exclude the USA, but Sheona’s generalizations do not hold true.
The people traffickers, as we know, are violent and despicable people and deserve the full rigours of the law. Many of the ordinary immigrants, though, have committed no crime apart from wanting a better life and deserve respect on account of their inherent human dignity … which is not necessarily to say that they should not be deported.
A General Comment
We all have issues which we do not like to see trivialised. I can think of one or two that I’d get pretty hot under the collar about. I, personally, do not think that it is unreasonable for people to put a different case when they see a subject, about which they feel passionately, being, in their opinion, made light of.
Brendano
And my right to choose not to read such posts is no less than your right to post them.
Agreed, Boadicea. I chose to make this point several times on both my own post and Brendano’s, and I gave my reasons why I felt it inappropriate to comment further here.
Do you think accusations of condoning rape and murder are unreasonable, Boadicea?
I realize that a straight answer is out of the question.
Bodicea, if you choose not to read them, don’t assume you know what’s in them.
Sorry … Boadicea.
Sheona
I don’t think that any country can afford to take in masses of ‘uninvited guests’. I would like Soutie’s take on this since I believe that SA has a great number of refugees from Zimbabwe.
I have very firm opinions on this, largely due to discussions with people who have come into the country the ‘right way’… people who have taken themselves to the nearest safe haven and sat and waited to be accepted elsewhere. Anyone who tries to jump the queue should be deported forthwith, and refused entry at any later date.
I don’t think that one or two examples of ex-illegals making good are sufficient reasons to allow the many who do not into any country.
Then give them a title which doesn’t sound as though that is what you are doing…
Most people in America aren’t against immigration; they’re just against illegal immigration. For example, like most of our ancestors, my mother’s parents were immigrants. They came through Ellis Island and followed the various legal steps required in order to establish themselves as true citizens of this country. The immigrants crossing the Mexican border, however, have absolutely no interest in following these legal protocols. Once they cross the border, they change their names and/or purchase social security numbers in an effort to conceal their true identities from the law. It is not uncommon for an illegal immigrant to purchase not one, but two or more social security numbers, just in case one is flagged. I have witnessed this crime with my own eyes. (One day, a supposedly legal immigrant was asked to give their social security card to a receptionist for a job application and an interview. When the receptionist happened to ask to see the card a second time, the immigrant mistakenly handed over a different social security card with the same name on it, but with a completely different set of numbers…)
Don’t get me wrong: I’m not against Hispanics. I have many Hispanic friends, but they either have green cards to work in the United States or have become legal citizens. They decided to follow the rule of law and work within the boundaries of our legal system. Unfortunately, many immigrants do not, and it is those particular individuals that we are most concerned about.
Now it seems that those who sympathize with illegal immigrants wish to hijack the discussion of reform by attacking the law recently imposed by the State of Arizona through protests and boycotts; a state mind you, that has been besieged with crime, drugs and an ever-increasing population of illegal immigrants. Don’t allow them this option. Speak out and take action. This is your country… fight for it.
In closing, I consider myself to be a bleeding-heart liberal: a Democrat. My ancestor, Roger Williams – the founder of Rhode Island and founder of the First Baptist Church in America, was one too; regarding the acceptance of different nationalities, cultures and religions as the vitality and lifeblood of any country. Nevertheless, I think that he would agree with me; that immigrants wishing to become legal citizens have not only the obligation, but the civil and legal responsibility to follow the rules of law established by any country in which they wish to become authentic citizens, just as our ancestors – both yours and mine – struggled so arduously and righteously to achieve.
As Clint said Bearsy, “Make my day.” 🙂
toc, would make mine too!
Thanks for that “Destuctionist”, it about sums up my view: Don’t start your life in a new country by breaking the laws of that country, and then try to claim that you are a law-abiding citizen.
Destuctionist,
What a great comment! Thank you. Most here in the UK are totally out of the loop as to what is actually going on in the States. I know I am!
Cheers.
Very good post Bravo, I appreciate the information and facts you supplied.
That people smuggling is the third biggest earner on this planet, behind drugs and weapons, is indeed a sign of how far this activity is spread and practiced. That it cashes in on human misery is the worst aspect of this business, as pointed out by you.
What gets up my goat is that all of us hold governments responsible, when it is the responsibility of all of us to do something about it. But no, we just prefer to see it as a “marketplace”. Get a cheap housekeeper, painter, pizza or inexpensive hooker and everyone is happy about the received bargain. Not too may people think about the misery behind the price and are quiet happy to support it. It is capitalism at its worst, and that is the real reason why people smuggling is so widespread.
But what caused this blog was your comment on a poem that was a window on life, like a short story or a painting, and I don’t believe it was meant to be seen in the light you shone upon it.
Brendano
Your comments:
and
are both out of order… and they are only those directed at me; I could quote a number of comments addressed to others that I not only think were out of order, but downright offensive. Had any of them occurred on one of my posts, I would have removed them. And, furthermore, I would have been tempted to remove any subsequent posts written by you to justify yourself.
I am getting extremely angry with those few people who seem to think that ‘freedom of speech’ includes the right to make snide, sarcastic and ill-mannered remarks to others and, thereby, spoil the enjoyment of everyone else. If you want to make those kind of remarks – go back to MyT where they are commonplace – don’t bring them here.
Perhaps one day, it is a very complex subject, I couldn’t do the subject justice with a simple comment here.
Suffice to say we have millions (perhaps 5 or 6, that’s more than 10% of our population) not just Zim but West Africa, Central Africa and Somalia.
They place a massive strain on this countries welfare, policing and other resources, I’d like to see the back of all of them except for the genuine asylum seekers and refugees, even then, that burden should be shared equally by all SADEC countries and financed by the AU
Thanks Soutie. I would appreciate it sometime, if you get around to it. One of the things I like about this blogging bit is that one can get an ‘inside’ view into other countries.
Brendano, I have to disagree with your statement that my generalisations do not hold true. The reason illegal immigrants have chosen that path is because they know they have no qualifications to offer and are therefore unwilling to take their places in the legal queue. I’m glad your acquaintances have done well, but they were still breaking the law.
Destructionist, thank you for that very interesting comment. We cannot condone law-breaking and it must be punished to send a warning to others.