Date: Mon Dec 1 16:21:22 2014
Human smugglers: Exploiters or pioneers of new underground railroad?
Typically described as ruthless, traffickers are perceived by some African
refugees in Sudan as freedom facilitators
by <http://america.aljazeera.com/profiles/j/james-jeffrey.html> James
Jeffrey & <http://america.aljazeera.com/profiles/b/milena-belloni.html>
Milena Belloni
December 1, 2014
KHARTOUM, Sudan - American rapper Lil Wayne's lyrics resounded in the
minivan as a group of human smugglers sped through the night in Sudan's
capital, Khartoum.
"We are going to get the people from the store" said Michael, who had just
received a call from a driver taking refugees from Shagarab - a refugee camp
in Kassala, a state in eastern Sudan - to Khartoum. The next step was to
keep the refugees safe and hidden until another driver would take them to
Tripoli in Libya.
It was just a normal night for 24-year-old Michael, looking clean cut in
smart clothes, with slick hair and smelling of nice aftershave, and his two
assistant samsara, the local Arabic term for human smugglers, who work at
night and sleep off the long hours - as well as the whiskey, cigarettes and
hashish - the next day.
Michael, who did not want to be known by his real name out of fear for his
safety, used to smuggle in his home country, Eritrea, before fleeing to
Sudan, where he continues doing what he knows best. After one year in
Khartoum, he controls a significant amount of money and works a network of
contacts. This includes guides who lead people out of Eritrea, others who
transfer refugees from Ethiopia to Sudan and yet more who drive them through
the Sahara to Libya.
Sudan hosts a refugee population of about 160,000, which rises to over 2
million when internally displaced people and asylum seekers are included,
according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). This
makes Sudan a major refugee hub in East Africa and a major way station for
those hoping to reach other destinations. Neighboring Ethiopia has the most
in Africa.
Developing countries host 86 percent of the world's refugees, according to
the 2013 UNHCR Global Trends report. Often these countries already struggle
to respond to the needs of their own populations and are reluctant to allow
refugees to study, work or move freely in their territories.
Meanwhile, only a few developed countries, such as the U.S., Canada,
Australia and a few Scandinavian countries, provide effective refugee
resettlement programs. In 2013 only 98,400 individuals - fewer than 1
percent of refugees worldwide - were allowed to move from refugee camps to
developed countries.
During 2013, smugglers moved about 150,000 refugees through the
Mediterranean alone, a figure based on the number of people assisted by the
Italian navy. Yet this represents only a small fraction of the actual number
smuggled into Europe and other countries.
Smugglers are not the cause of refugees' problems, argues a variety of
scholars, such as Hein de Haas, a co-director of the International Migration
Institute, and Nando Sigona, a senior research officer at the U.K. Refugee
Studies Centre. Rather, they are simply responding to demand for geographic
mobility created by increasing inequality among countries and by the surge
of policy obstacles against the movement of people from developing
countries.
Against this background, it is not surprising that many Eritrean refugees in
Khartoum view smugglers as facilitators rather than exploiters.
"Smugglers could be compared to those individuals who helped black people
during slavery moving from the South to the North in the U.S. and today are
considered heroes," said Eritrean refugee Yohannes, who, like other refugees
in this story, did not want his real name used our of fear of the
authorities. "Who knows? Maybe one day smugglers will be considered heroes
too because they helped people find freedom."
But there exists a type of smuggler who is anything but a hero. Michael
pointed out flashy restaurants offering Middle Eastern cuisine at the side
of the popular road the minivan was on. "These are the shops of the
killers," he said.
Michael's "killers" are human traffickers who in this part of Africa have
become infamous for selling refugees to ruthless gangs operating in the
Sinai Desert. The telephoned cries of tortured refugees are used to convince
families abroad to pay ransoms of thousands of dollars.
"They sell our people like beasts." Michael said. "I am a samsari, but I
have humanity. Eritreans are my people, my family. I take responsibility for
them."
Whether such sentiment comes more from moral code than market forces is
debatable. Potential customers make their choices based on an evaluation of
the smuggler's efficiency and reliability. "I know one samsari - he is a
very nice guy. He never lost a man," said Mebrahtu, another Eritrean refugee
in Khartoum. "He has experience and fair prices."
Convoy
A convoy of vehicles carries illegal migrants left by traffickers in the
desert near the border between Sudan and Libya. Ashraf Shazly / AFP / Getty
Images
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