Living off human suffering
The drugs trade, human trafficking, and migrant smuggling are all billion dollar industries in their own right. They destabilise vulnerable states, displace people and finance armed groups.
Often, such activities fuel local and regional conflicts. Organised crime threatens regional and international security and is an important financing source for terror and rebel groups. This is particularly true in weak states, where large areas are outside government control and local discontent of the authorities and corruption are widespread. In such states, networks of organised crime will easily find allies.
A global issue
Today, many countries in the world are affected by movements of migrants and refugees. These are countries of origin, transit countries or host countries. Sometimes one country is all three. People who have fled their homes are particularly vulnerable to criminal networks engaging in migrant smuggling and human trafficking.
In Latin-America, widespread corruption, weak institutions and a high degree of impunity makes it easy for organised crime to gain ground. Migrants and refugees, many of whom are minors, are being abducted by criminal groups. Besides dealing with drugs, these groups profit from smuggling migrants and trading human beings. In Mexico alone, tens of thousands of children have disappeared, according to the organisation Movimiento Migrante Mesoamericano.
In addition to narcotics production, a common feature of Afghanistan, Colombia and Myanmar is long lasting internal conflict which displaces high numbers of people. There is a linkage between the high profits from the drug trade and the long duration of these conflicts. Millions have suffered as a result.
Hundreds of thousands of people are being exploited and exposed to enormous suffering due to international organised crime. In 2015, the world saw a terrifying example of what human trafficking can lead to. Mass graves in the border areas between Thailand and Malaysia revealed the bodies of a huge number of Rohingya refugees from Myanmar and Bangladesh, who had been victims of forced labour and abuse from human traffickers. In April 2016, it was revealed that 75 Syrian refugee women had been forced into prostitution by human traffickers in Lebanon. Tragically, this is just the tip of the iceberg.
Migrant smuggling and Europe
According to the Europol-Interpol report Report on Migrant Smuggling Networks from May 2016, criminal networks in Europe received between five and six billion dollars from migrant smuggling in 2015. The report states that criminal networks were involved in 90 percent of the entries of migrants and refugees to EU.
In a similar report, Migrant Smuggling in EU (2016), Europol estimates that around 40,000 people are involved in migrant smuggling in and to Europe. In the Balkans, old smuggling routes and well established criminal networks have gained new life. These networks include Albanians in Kosovo, southern Serbia, and Macedonia, Greeks in Thessaloniki, Serbs in Belgrade and Bulgarians along the borders to Serbia, Macedonia and Turkey. All of these have ties to Turkish syndicates. The criminal structures have become multinational, while at the same time social media and mobile technology give criminals new communication possibilities.
Since 2000, more than 30,000 people have lost their lives in their attempt to get to Europe, according to The Migrant Files, a consortium of journalists from 15 European countries. European measures of closing and militarising the borders have led to changing routes, made migrants and refugees more dependent on smugglers, and increased the prices and the risk of crossing the borders.
In autumn 2015, refugees paid 1,200 dollars for a place on a rubber boat with room for 40 people from Turkey to Greece. Criminal groups gained around 48,000 dollars on every trip. The high number of people drowning on the way over was not a concern to the smugglers, since the travel had already been paid for. Bottles of water were sold for 10 dollars.
Migration by crossing the Mediterranean by boat dates back to 1991, when Spain and Italy introduced visa (Schengen) to North Africans. New routes were established when Spain streamlined its border controls. Over the past years, the popularity of the Turkey to Greece route surpassed the Libya to Italy route. Recently, the pattern has shifted back, and more people are travelling from Libya to Italy. These changes are happening following measures taken by governments to try to control the flows.
According to a report from the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime from May 2015, the revenue from the Mediterranean smuggling is a main income source of Libya’s armed groups based in the Sahel border areas. A chaotic Libya has had a destabilising effect, also on the countries in the Sahel region.
Drug trafficking
In few places has organised crime had a more devastating effect than in the vulnerable Sahel belt south of the Sahara. Some of the world’s poorest countries are in this region, which has a total population of 150 million people. In the coming 25 years, the population of the Sahel will increase to 300 million people.
Smuggling has long traditions in this part of the world and has been an important part of the local economy for centuries. Until recently, tobacco was the main contraband. However, it was not until after 2000, when criminal networks started smuggling cocaine from Latin America to western Africa that the world started to pay attention. Between 2005 and 2007, the combined value of confiscated products in this area exceeded the gross national product of the transit countries. As the criminal networks were better resourced than the states themselves, they could corrupt the political system, and ignore legal ways of doing business.
One example is that of the small country Guinea Bissau that was hit particularly hard, and experienced political turmoil and a series of coups and attempted coups as a result. The murder of President Vieira in 2009 was undoubtedly related to the competition between powerful people for the cocaine profit.
Whereas in Colombia, Afghanistan, and Myanmar, it is the production of narcotics that leads to displacement, in West-Africa and the Sahel it is the smuggling activity that has a devastating effect. In 2008, the cocaine flow began decreasing, but it has far from stopped. Much of the cocaine that was confiscated subsequently disappeared, indicating high levels of corruption in the police and government authorities.
Since the entire ECOWAS area (Economic Community of West African States) has freedom of movement and goods, people and narcotics may be transported between countries without border controls. From western Africa, the narcotics arrive in Europe by sea (fishing boats, containers on cargo ships), on commercial planes (small amounts on frequent planes), or through the Sahara to northern Africa and onward to Europe by speed boats or light planes.
Human trafficking in the Sahara
Historically, there has been much movement in West Africa and the Sahel, both inside the region and to other parts of Africa, Europe and the Middle East. Armed conflicts, climate changes, extreme poverty, and the rise of terror groups have weakened already weak states and led to displacement and migration both inside the region and in the direction of the Mediterranean. Among other developments, the bombing and regime change in Libya in 2011, the rebellion in Mali in 2012, and the recent expansion of Boko Haram beyond Nigeria have all increased instability in the region and affected the migration routes.
In the Sahel, migrant smugglers often use traditional smuggler routes through Niger, Mali, Morocco, Algeria, Mauretania, and Libya. Nomads including the Touaregs in Mali and Niger, and the Toubous in Tchad, continue to use old caravan routes to smuggle goods and people through the Sahara to northern Africa.
In western Africa and the Sahel region, human trafficking and migrant smuggling happens on a national, regional, and international level. Most of the victims of human trafficking are women and children who are abused through forced labour, sexual abuse, prostitution, begging, organ trade, and recruitment as child soldiers.
The threat of abuse is ever present when they cross the Sahara. They are extremely vulnerable to networks of smugglers, corrupt police and authorities in transit countries, and armed militias controlling the areas they have to pass through. In addition, there is the threat of being abandoned in the desert when vehicles break down and having too little water. Women who object to abuse or people who do not pay are simply left behind. Unlike in the Mediterranean, these violations happen out of sight, away from the cameras.
The traffickers exert control through violence and threats against victims and their families, blackmailing them or putting them in their "debt" for the transportation. The victims are afraid – they do not dare to ask for help or attempt to escape. Often they do not speak the host country’s language. This means that the victims themselves are often unwilling to cooperate with those who want to defend their rights.
The transit city Agadez
Niger, and especially the city of Agadez, is a transit point for many migrants and refugees before continuing toward Libya. Having put behind them the traumatic experiences from the journey so far, they do not realise they are only at the beginning of something which for most people is far worse.
The chaos in Libya has caused many people to become stranded in Agadez. Many who have crossed to Libya, have returned to Niger. This buildup of desperate migrants and refugees without cash and in the hands of human smugglers has led to increased crime in the city. In 2014, authorities in Niger unsuccessfully tried to close the ghetto-like districts of Agadez where most migrants and refugees were staying. The influx, however, continues.
Many are not able to move on from Agadez because their money, ID papers, and belongings have been stolen along the way, or they have become sick. Some are easily recruited into the criminal networks and may even end up becoming smugglers themselves, albeit lower down in the criminal hierarchies. Once they have found this new occupation, they give up moving on to Europe. Many women resort to prostitution, and can easily fall into the hands of traffickers recruiting to North African brothels. If all hope seems to be lost, trading organs is a last resort. This is accepted if one cannot pay otherwise.
Various migration routes meet in Agadez. Libya is four days and 300 dollars away. Already tired and afraid, people do not know what awaits them on their upcoming journey through the Sahara to Libya, as they cross the Mediterranean or when they finally arrive in Europe.
Terror and organised crime
Since the 2000s, armed groups have earned most of their money through organised crime, taxation of smuggling and criminal markets. It is easy to see how the trafficking routes in Iraq, Syria and Turkey overlap with those areas occupied by IS.
Developments in the Sahel show that organised crime is transnational and can destabilise an entire region, as well as provide a breeding ground for terrorist groups that can quickly evolve to become regional and international security threats.
From November 2015 until March 2016, groups linked to al-Qaeda in the Maghreb conducted three major terrorist attacks in Mali, Burkina Faso and Ivory Coast. The threat from militant Islamists is complex and changing. The rivalry between IS and al-Qaida increases, particularly in the Sahel and adjacent areas. The weakening of al-Qaeda centrally has given its regional branches in the Sahel greater importance. Here they are increasingly linked to the local agendas and conflicts. Boko Haram is also linked to local conflicts, but has sworn loyalty to IS, mainly to show its strength and its opposition to al-Qaeda in the Maghreb.
The link between organised crime and terrorist organisations is obvious and has been pointed out by several analysts NRC has contacted. This also applies in the Sahel. Although initially their motivations may be different, since criminals have maximum profit as the only goal, while Islamic militants have an ideological or religious motive, they feed off each other. Terror creates conflicts, refugees and weakens state institutions, which the criminals know how to exploit. At the same time, the criminal activity helps ensure a constant flow of money to the terrorists.
The emergence of terrorist groups
Wahhabism, a conservative interpretation of Islam and promoted by Saudi Arabia, has for decades been on the rise in the Sahel, particularly in Mali. It promotes equality before God and gained a foothold as a counterforce to the socially rigid Malian class society. The neo-liberal structural adjustment programmes in the late 1980s opened up new opportunities for Wahhabis by drastically reducing public investment in education and health.
This happened while Saudi Arabia was increasing its support for the propagation of conservative Islam in West Africa and the Sahel. New mosques and Islamic institutions emerged, and thousands of students from the region enrolled in Islamic universities. Lack of public investment in northern Mali after the peace agreement with the Tuareg in 1996 also gave rise to highly conservative religious organisations, with support from Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, among others.
The emergence of a conservative interpretation of Islam occurred in several places in the Sahel and the Arab world. Why is militant Islam on the march in the Sahel? Besides weak government institutions, enormous social and economic challenges and unrest in neighbouring countries such as Algeria and now especially Libya, one explanation lies in the states' national policies.
In the northern regions of Nigeria and Mali, prolonged marginalisation of areas and ethnic groups is common. For years, Boko Haram could sow their seeds and build on local discontent, before they started armed struggle in 2009. When Islamists in Algeria were militarily defeated, they pulled into northern Mali where they spent years building up their strength. Repeated rebellions among the nomadic people, the Tuareg, and deep seated dissatisfaction with the authorities in the capital Bamako, created ideal conditions for further radical Islamisation. When the Tuareg rebelled again in 2012 and demanded a separate state, the Islamists wasted no time in turning what was initially a political rebellion into an ideological and religious struggle.
The important border states
Future political developments in Sahel’s border states will be critical in combatting crime and terrorist organisations. A chaotic Libya and the consequences of climate change make a bad looking future, while developments in Ivory Coast offers hope.
If the peace is kept and the positive economic development in Ivory Coast continues, this will undoubtedly have major positive effects for poor landlocked Sahel states, such as Burkina Faso and Mali. The development of ports and road networks in Ivory Coast would improve trade between the countries of the Sahel and the rest of the world. While contributing to improve the security situation in northern Nigeria, normal food production in Ivory Coast would improve food security in Niger.
No security without development
Preventing conflict and refugee flows, stopping terrorist groups from taking root and combatting organised crime are all interrelated. Creating security is impossible without development. The Sahel has a large number of young people with few hopes for the future, while the challenges created by climate change amplify the problems.
The situation in the region is clearly very complex. Achieving stability and positive development will obviously be a challenging and time consuming task. There is a need for more knowledge and analysis, both to streamline humanitarian assistance and in particular to assess the effectiveness of development policies. There is a grey area between humanitarian aid and long-term aid where nobody takes responsibility. The aim must be to find durable solutions for displaced people, prevent conflict, promote good governance, help create resilient and inclusive societies, and promote an equitable distribution.