Talk politics.

It's quite a lucrative business. The people-smuggling gangs around the world make billions of dollars from illegal transportation of desperate people. Crossing all borders, spanning all continents. In parts of Europe, people are feeling as if they're living in a permanent state of emergency whenever flotillas of crappy vessels stuffed with refugees cross the Mediterranean, and flood the refugee camps. Tensions arise, clashes occasionally occur. For the traffickers none of this matters of course, it's just business like any other. That has been their occupation for years, and it's getting ever more sophisticated, and better organized.


Here's the book Confessions of a Human Trafficker by Andrea di Nicola and Giampaolo Musumeci. It's a depressing, yet very informative and detailed account on the very overlooked part of the gray economy that is human trafficking.

The traffickers treat this as providing a service, and a much needed one, at that. The price varies, depending on the ordered "package of services". For example, a trip from Afghanistan or Syria to Europe could cost between 7 and 10 thousand euros. Sometimes the migrant or the refugee fleeing civil war at home has to travel in stages, and work in different places to make enough money for the next stage. Otherwise they're stuck wherever they've reached at the point they've run out of money, and often become slaves in all but name. Some traffickers take the money after the arrival at the end point, or the family of the refugee pays in advance from home. All in all, the traffickers are very inventive - one could argue they're the embodiment of the enterprising spirit. Their methods constantly evolve. But the main principle remains: making money in the most efficient way possible, with minimum risk. Just imagine a trafficking group operating as a legal firm, using the weaknesses of a legal environment to its benefit - well, the traffickers do that too, they fill a niche that's brimming with potential.

What's interesting about this book is that it tries to break the worn-out stereotypes. Granted, many traffickers transport their migrants to Europe via the Mediterranean. It's also true that thousands of personal tragedies are making up this vast canvas of a story. Many of the wealthier "clients" land directly in Europe by plane. Using forged ID and work permits. The Italian authorities often like to brag that they've caught this trafficker or the other. Except, that's more like arresting an insignificant drug dealer on the street, and calling that a huge blow against drug contraband, which is just bullshit. The traffickers who are usually caught are only the last link in a vast and complex network. People who'd otherwise probably make less than 300 dollars from a single trip with a fishing boat, are now making 4-5K by transporting refugees with that same vessel.

They certainly commit a crime, and should bear responsibility for that. But if they're just put behind bars, without trying to follow the link back to whoever is sitting behind them in the shades, organized crime will never be really tackled.

The book abounds of examples, putting in question the European migration policies. The authors argue that Europe is hugely responsible for the very existence, let alone the flourishing of that "business". They claim that the money for Frontex, the agency which is actually supposed to but is failing to guard the borders, are being spent in vain. After all, it's not normal that thousands of people who are fleeing war and bloodshed and whom the founding principles of the EU should be protecting, are being compelled to rely on the Turkish and Syrian traffickers or other shady groups to get through. And there is some merit to that sort of argument: why should all those people not get adequate help from actual institutions that are responsible for that very task, as opposed to being dependent on the human traffickers?


The migrants perceive the traffickers as providers of services, and the latter perceive the former as their customers. Both sides are aware of the risks of the trip. At least 3000 migrants have perished in the Mediterranean for 2014 alone. But the trafficker would never willfully put the life of their customers at risk, because that would ultimately hurt their business. The authors cite the accuont of a trafficker who said that people in Upper Egypt would often kiss his hands with gratitude and reverence whenever he visited their villages. In other places they could maul him and kill him, if people from their place had drowned in a capsized ship, of which there are many around the Italian and Spanish shores. Of course he doesn't want anyone dead, but it does happen sometimes. Too often, actually. Other traffickers have insisted that they're doing only good for the people: "I'm honest, I only do good", one said. "I am just like Moses". As if to prove that human traffickers have always existed, and migration is part of every epoch.

The title of the book might be a bit misleading, though. The authors have actually interviewed 12 separate traffickers. Some of them they've visited in jail, others they've met while in Egypt and Turkey. The conclusion is inescapable: those are not just traders of human fates, quite literally - in essence, they're the largest criminal "tour agency" in the world. And the problem can't be addressed by only tackling the symptoms, and pursuing the traffickers themselves. We need to dig much deeper than that, and reach down to the root cause. Otherwise the Mediterranean will keep getting filled with sunken boats and corpses.