When Terrorist Organizations Engage in Human Smuggling and Trade

• In Event: The Intersection of Criminality and War

Abstract

Human trafficking is a multi-billion dollar industry that was once controlled by criminal groups. The disruption of global networks of terrorist financing has led many terrorist organizations to criminal activities for financing their extensive operations. Although, terrorists have not exploited human trafficking markets as heavily as the drug trade or trafficking in counterfeit items, weapons, and natural resources, in many areas of the world where there is a significant illicit economy and vulnerable populations, linkages have been found between terrorist activities and human trade. The systematic analysis of human trafficking by terrorist organizations remains an unexplored side of the modus operandi of terrorist groups. “Why do some terrorist groups engage in human trafficking?” is the question examined in this paper.
The dominant view regards human trafficking as a source of funding for non-state groups. The cash motives that drive criminal organizations to engage in lucrative crime also drive terrorist groups’ involvement in human trafficking. Others contend that while trafficking does generate revenue, it is not a central money-making mechanism for terrorist organizations, which engage in human trade for other reasons. The two primary are the use of trafficking as the means of war and recruitment strategy. Trafficked persons have been used as foot soldiers and suicide bombers. Trafficking and sexual violence that typically accompanies it demoralizes and intimidates populations, and reduces their resistance to terrorist groups. Terrorist groups have resorted to trafficking for sexual exploration to enhance group discipline and cohesion, socialize recruits, and reward membership. To these explanations this study adds two more. First, violent groups are more likely to resort to human trafficking by forging alliances with human trafficking and smuggling networks. They also learn (or emulate) human trafficking through alliances with other violent groups engaged in human trade.
The paper tests these expectations using new data on organizational characteristics of violent non-state actors obtained from the Big Allied and Dangerous (BAAD) 2 dataset (1998-2015) supplemented with the new data on human trafficking coded for this project. The study defines human trafficking by violent groups broadly to include participation in human trade as well as human smuggling, forced recruitment, forced labor, and kidnappings. The current dataset codes trafficking activity for 156 violent groups listed in BAAD with the eventual goal of expanding the analysis to the broader universe of terrorist groups.
By addressing the sources of terrorist groups' involvement in human trafficking, which can we found in underlying gender inequality and threats posed by liberalism and globalization, the paper speaks to the conference theme of populism. More broadly, the paper highlights that populism is a virulent response to many of the same trends that motivate violent group behavior.

Author

• Nazli Avdan, Kansas University