Description
Book SynopsisMigrant, Refugee, Smuggler, Saviour investigates one of the most under-examined aspects of the great migration crisis of our time. As millions seek passage to Europe in order to escape conflicts, repressive governments and poverty, their movements are enabled and actively encouraged by professional criminal networks that earn billions of dollars. Many of these smugglers carry out their activities with little regard for human rights, which has led to a manifold increase in human suffering, not only in the Mediterranean Sea, but also along the overland smuggling routes that cross the Sahara, penetrate deep into the Balkans, and into hidden corners of Europe's capitals. But others are revered as saviours by those that they move, for it is they who deliver men, women and children to a safer place and better life. Disconcertingly, it is often criminals who help the most desperate among us 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 what they mean for peace and security in the future.
Trade Review'The authors leap around, with vivid reporting from Niger, Libya, the Balkans, Turkey and Egypt, among other places ... The book's key contention that tighter rules inspire entrepreneurs to create new, more dangerous and criminal smuggling routes is persuasive.' -- The Economist; 'Migrant, Refugee, Smuggler, Saviour argues that the world needs to understand how networks of traffickers function if it is to get to grips with this migration crisis. Co-authors Tinti and Reitano ... use a mixture of reportage, first-hand accounts from migrants and extensive research to uncover a series of complex transnational industries that exist to help migrants bypass barriers whether geographic, man-made or political for a profit.' --Financial Times; 'This is a fascinating, nuanced and highly necessary account of an underworld that is much discussed but little understood, written by two of the leading experts in the field. I highly recommend it.' --Patrick Kingsley, The Guardian; 'Powerful analysis, groundbreaking research, vividly and journalistically expressed. This is a must-read for policy makers and anyone who wants a more truthful approach to a defining story of our age.' --New Internationalist
