Cite as: Tinti, P. and T. Reitano, 2017, Migrant, Refugee, Smuggler, Saviour. London: Hurst & CO.
As millions of people seek passage to Europe in order to escape conflict, repression, poverty and natural catastrophe, their movements are enabled and encouraged by ruthless professional criminal networks that earn billions of pounds from this insidious new trade. Migrant, Refugee, Smuggler, Saviour investigates one of the most under-examined aspects of the great migration crisis of our time to discover who profits from it.
The human suffering that results extends well beyond the Mediterranean: the smugglers’ routes cross the Sahara, penetrate deep into the Balkans and reach hidden corners of Europe’s capitals. But smugglers are also revered as saviours by many of those they move, delivering them to a safer place and a better life. Disconcertingly, it is often criminals who help the most desperate, when the international system turns them away.
This book is a measured attempt, born of years of research and reporting in the field, to better understand how people-smuggling networks function, the ways in which they have evolved, and their long term impact on both migration and global organised crime.