The Ins and Outs of Smuggling Syrain Refugees

Safety is a priceless commodity. But Syrian migrants paying an average of 2500 euros ($2840) to be smuggled into European nations at great risk to themselves would argue otherwise.

Since its start in 2011, the Syrian Civil War has displaced over 7.6 million of the nation’s citizens. Originally, many refugees fled to neighboring nations in the Middle East, notably Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, and Turkey. However, Lebanon has closed its borders and Turkey will only grant temporary protection to refugees, while overcrowded camps in Iraq and Jordan have left those countries unable to accept more refugees.

The Syrian refugee crisis continues to be an international issue as the United States and other non-European nations have taken steps towards extending asylum offers to refugees. Meanwhile, European nations have conducted an exhaustive search for means to help refugee programs handle the massive influx of asylum-seeking refugees pouring through their borders. German borders have flooded with the highest number of refugees, and the country has received nearly 109,000 asylum applications as of August 2015, according to the UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees).

Nations like France will have no worry, as refugees fear migrating there and becoming victims of the strong Islamophobic sentiment they have heard permeates the country. But for Germany and other more welcoming countries, maintaining both border security and refugee well-being will prove a difficult task financially.

On the other hand, unreceptive neighbor countries will hope the recent 230 million euros the EU invested in researching methods to hinder illegal immigration will prove successful in deterring refugees who are considering crossing borders. European nations have spent a further 995 million euros on border security since 1999, and so it has been a tumultuous fight to compete against human traffickers constantly creating unique and innovative routes and methods to smuggle aliens. In late September, the EU announced it’s donation of $1.1 billion to UN agencies for the aid of Jordan, Iraq, and more Middle Eastern nations accommodating refugees. They will hope to take some of the burden off of EU member states by helping Jordan and Iraq better handle their own refugee population, better equipping them to house more as the need arises.

These figures pale in comparison to the revenue that human trafficking generates in Europe, partly due to migrants desperately searching for safety from turmoil in their homeland. European trafficking industry revenue exceeded 16 billion euros between 2000 and 2015 according to The Migrant Files, a premiere online database ran by international journalists fighting human trafficking. The media has caught on to the issue as well, and migrant deaths resulting from the actions of careless smugglers make international headlines. Nations are scrambling to combat the smuggling industry and raise awareness about the issue.

THE TRIP TO EUROPE

According to The Migrant Files, for 700 euros, a Syrian migrant can be placed in the cargo hold of a ship headed to Europe, similar to what the 84 people who died in a capsized boat off the coast of Zuwara, Libya in late August may have experienced. Meanwhile, spending close to 2000 euros will fetch a place on the upper deck of that ship, complete with fake documents and a possibly comfortable voyage to Europe.

More expensive and comfortable options also exist; if a refugee can find his or her way into Turkey, for example, for 10,000 euros he can purchase a private plane ticket to a number of European destinations. 10,000 euros, though, is more than double the average pre-conflict yearly salary in Syria.

Even before the civil war, Syria’s economy had been in shambles after a drought wiped out 75 percent of crops and killed 85 percent of the nation’s livestock. Millions of citizens relying on agriculture for income were forced to abandon their past lives and start anew, only to do so once more during the civil war.

For wealthier citizens who can afford to charter a plane, the likelihood of successfully finding asylum in a European nation is higher despite a far more intricate operation. First, wealthier prospective migrants must book a hotel room near the Turkey border or even in Turkey. Near an airport, they wait for an opportune time to board a flight. (Some reports describe migrants crawling through underground tunnels to get to Turkey or the airport.) As the time draws near, they are snuck onto a chartered flight. If they are caught, they will lose 10,000 euros, but the extra money typically ensures the smugglers can bribe all officials involved and forge necessary documents.

Travelling by boat is a cheap and efficient method of smuggling, but the refugees doing this take a greater risk than those who charter private flights. Those who can only afford the 2000 euro option risk finding themselves back in their homeland, as naval ships patrolling the Mediterranean have demonstrated adeptness in capturing boats. Already poor migrants caught by authorities would find themselves out of a significant amount of money; they would not be able to afford the journey again unless they secured work, a difficult task in today’s ravaged Syria.

Moreover, those paying 700 euros face similar issues, but the trip comes with an added danger on the ticket—death. In early August, the Greek Naval Service reported rescuing 21 passengers in a small boat departing from Turkey. The smuggler had attempted to escape authorities by capsizing the boat and leaving the passengers to drown, but officials captured him before he could escape. Smugglers treat the refugees just like any other commodity, much like they would treat a bundle of heroin they could stuff in the hull of a boat travelling to Europe. The 71 refugees found suffocated in the back of a truck in late August are another example. Ultimately, the UNHCR reports that 2,500 migrants have drowned this year, including Alan Kurdi, a Syrian boy who washed up on a Turkish beach in early September.

THE INS AND OUTS OF THE SMUGGLING INDUSTRY

How then,, does the massive influx of Syrian refugees play into these smugglers’ hands? What has led to the exorbitant death toll of migrants that grows each week?

The business of smuggling humans entails a variety of costs. An individual being smuggled from one country to another must have proper clothes, obtain documentation of citizenship to either the destination country or another EU nation, pay transportation costs, and, possibly, cover comfort costs for items such as food and water. Traffickers, additionally, often have to bribe a number of people to make their operation work. This bribery understandably becomes more complex as the business grows larger. A 10,000-euro flight from Turkey will involve bribing entire airline crews and a pilot, while refugees paying 700 euro to be smuggled by boat or bus must deal with locating drivers and bribing border patrol employees.

With all of these fixed costs, tragedies involving drowning or suffocation, while still unsympathetic and cruel, become understandable within the business context. In the eyes of smugglers, they are offering a product, and the consumers understand the risks associated with the product. Yet the smuggling market makes it easy to maximize profit, which is in fact very simple to accomplish once a prospective smuggler meets all startup costs. The marginal cost of smuggling refugees is consistently low until a maximum capacity is reached for a voyage. Each smuggler has the maximum number of people he or she can tr affic on the established means of transportation, and each additional person before that maximum number is additional profit. The marginal cost of trafficking another load full of refugees is higher, due to the need to charter an additional unit of transportation, and this leads to smugglers attempting to add as many extra passengers as possible on one boat. Furthermore, operating too many boats either increases the likelihood of a route being found or the need to set up new routes, which becomes unnecessarily costly. The only challenge left after recruiting migrants is transporting them while evading law enforcement.

EUROPE’S OPTIONS

Europe is at a disadvantage. At high levels of business, a trafficker generally chooses to halt operations temporarily because of the capital and time it takes to establish new smuggling routes. Traffickers, therefore, do not take on too much business at one time. There are, at any point in time, thousands of separate networks smuggling persons, which makes it nearly impossible to shut down the business completely. Smugglers learn to weave in and out of the business. Muammer Küçük, a high profile smuggler, has successfully evaded international authorities for this very reason, despite the 77 capsized ships reported to be under his operation.

European Union nations face a difficult task. Should they allocate funds primarily to nations accepting refugees and allow illegal immigration to continue, or should they allow illegal immigration to continue and leave nations like Germany to face the refugee crisis themselves? Or might they divide the money evenly and risk underfunding both projects? Relying on current security measures and asking other nations around the world to accept refugees will only help so much.