Integrated Responses to Human Smuggling from the Horn of Africa to Europe

The Global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime just published “Integrated Responses to Human Smuggling from the Horn of Africa to Europe” which was presented exclusively at the CCPCJ in Vienna this morning (May 24, 2017).

In the period 2013-16, more than 1.5 million people have converged towards Europe from across Africa, the Middle East and Asia. Some seek asylum from conflict, violence and humanitarian need; others are migrant workers taking the opportunity of a confluence of political instabilities and circumstance that has made migration to Europe more affordable and accessible than ever before.

This report, authored by Tuesday Reitano, Peter Tinti, Mark Shaw and Lucia Bird of the Global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime, presents the major findings of research conducted between July and September 2016 over eight major smuggling hubs between the Horn of Africa and Europe.

The research methodology was a broad selection of key informant interviews – more than 600 individual interviews – with national government officials, civil society actors, international officials, think tanks and policy bodies, but most importantly with migrants and traffickers themselves.

This was supplemented with a review of the growing body of literature on mixed migration in the region and towards Europe. In doing so, the study adopts an innovative approach, situating human smuggling within its local political economy, and proposing context relevant approaches in response.

See the full report here:

Global Initiative – Human Smuggling from the Horn of Africa – May 2017 (web)

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