Criminal synergies: Human smuggling and illicit organ removal on the Central Mediterranean route

• In Event: Rethinking migrant smuggling: Narratives, perceptions and policies across routes

Abstract

The externalization of European border controls in North Africa is represented and justified by European leaders as the antithesis to the business model of human smuggling and human trafficking. Rather than being in an antithetical relationship, I argue that the European Union is in a symbiotic relationship with criminal groups exploiting the (im)mobility of migrants for profit. My analysis is informed by 37 interviews with African migrants, organ brokers, migration brokers and humanitarian organizations. Their experiences reveal how the convergence of crime and immigration controls along the Central Mediterranean route has led to the development of criminal synergies between different illegal markets, i.e. human smuggling and illicit organ removal.

Author

• Seán Columb, University of Liverpool