African Illegal Immigration and the Gateways to Europe - Research Paper Example

Section/# Libya and Morocco: A Study of African Illegal Immigration and the Gateways to Europe Introduction: When one seeks to analyze specific statistics involving illegal behavior, it is invariably true that these statistics might not actually be entirely accurate. Accordingly, with this understanding in mind, the following analysis will seek to engage the reader with a discussion and explanation of current trends with illegal immigration, specifically focusing upon the illegal immigration that stems from the North African nations of Morocco and Libya. Further, the analysis will seek to compare and contrast these two points of emigration; alongside analyzing the stakeholders involved, effects on human rights, effects the nations of Europe and their overall economic development, and what steps can be taken to rectify these problems. Through such an examination, it is the hope of this author that the reader can come to a more informed understanding of the unique determinants of illegal immigration from North Africa and the means through which Europe can seek to counter this destabilizing influence upon its future development. Background: It does not take a great deal of careful consideration to realize the fact that countless tens of thousands of individuals each and every year risk their lives in whatever material possessions they might have in a desperate bid to enter southern Europe by. Whereas there are many different routes through which this might be accomplished, two of the most common and utilized routes for entering Europe illegally from Africa are via the coast of Morocco and the Libyan port city of Benghazi. Furthermore, although it might be convenient to understand all forms of African immigration into Europe in terms of a generic or similar pattern, the fact of the matter is that the differential between these two ports of entry not be more stark. As a function of seeking to analyze differential to a more full and complete degree, the following analysis will engage the reader with the unique dynamics that separate these two illegal immigration terminals. Stakeholders: Before delving headlong into an analysis between these two potential ports of illegal entry into the European Union, it is first necessary to reference the different stakeholders involved. Firstly, and most obviously, the immigrants and it would be themselves are those who were at the most risk within the situation at hand. Secondly, another of culpable stakeholders involved those individuals, games, crime syndicates, and not portions of governance within the nations in question that actively promote and encourage this traffic as a means of enriching themselves. Whereas it might be convenient to lay blame on this human smuggling entirely upon syndicates, the sad fact of the matter is that it did corruption within both Morocco and Libya contributed drastically to the overall rates of immigration between North Africa and Europe (Jenkins 2). Another obvious stakeholder within this situation is that of the national governments of both Morocco and Libya. Whereas it is true that there are of course some corrupt officials is within government, it cannot be said that the entire system is corrupt. Instead, there are many stakeholders within the government of Libya and Morocco that are equally aware of the consequences and realities that this human trafficking has upon their own people and the sovereignty of their borders. Last, but not least, one should consider the fact that stakeholders within the European community are those which are most powerfully affected as a result of this illegal form of immigration. Whereas it is quite obvious to understand that the budgets and social safety net for European society is taxed as a result of accepting hundreds and thousands of new immigrants each and every year, the added pressure of continually providing further resources and technology to patrol the seas and apprehend those would-be difficult for the asylum seekers prior to them reaching Europe places another extraordinary financial toll on Europe each and every year. Libya and the Port of Benghazi: As previously stated in the introduction to this particular analysis, the determining realistic numbers for the overall level of illegal immigration any particular is very difficult; due in part to the fact that very nature of the legal behavior described as stakeholders from accurately representing the information or from authorities being able to accurately estimate the overall opportunities they are able to send those that have slipped through the cracks of the system and are currently designing illegally within Europe. However, within the construct of this particular difficulty, it has been estimated by scholars that each and every year approximately 22,000 would-be illegal immigrants leave the port of Benghazi and venture across the Mediterranean into various parts of Europe. One of the most common route is to gain asylum is the Island of Lampedusa; a territory of Italy only about 80 miles off the coast of Libya. Malta is also a common port of entry as it is readily accessible from Libya and the risk of being detained on the high seas is greatly reduced; as compared to seeking to make it to the mainland of Europe (Coluccello & Massey 81). Yet, the individuals that come from Africa in an attempt to gain asylum in Europe cannot merely be referred to as similar. Instead, there are a host of ethnic, religious, and political differentials that encourage these individuals to risk all they have for the hope of a better life. In the case of Benghazi, the majority of all of these immigrants hail from the following countries: Sudan, Somalia, Uganda, Rwanda, and a litany of other sub-Saharan African nations. Moreover, rather than individuals being solely interested in improving upon the quality of their life or the standard of living that they might have experienced at home, the majority of the immigrants that come through the Benghazi route left their homeland as the primary result of war, famine, or the complete inability to survive a situation they have been placed within. Whereas it is true that immigration has always been driven by the difficulty of life within one particular region and/or the promise and hope of a better life, the situation that has been described with respect to the immigrants from Sudan of Somalia, Uganda is one of extreme and extraordinary hardship (Mahmoud 3). Furthermore, as has been noted throughout several decades, the related threat of radical Islam and the difficulties it has created have resulted humanitarian crisis after humanitarian crisis in nations such as Somalia and Sudan. Morocco and Illegal Immigration into Europe: From a cursory glance at a map of North Africa, one would instantly note that Morocco would likely be a point of entry into Europe that smugglers and others would utilize; due in part to the fact that there is such a narrow body of water, The Strait of Gibraltar, separating Africa from Spain; and subsequently the EU. Unlike the Libyan port of Benghazi, Morocco offers many places through which the would-be asylum seeker or illegal immigrant may leave Morocco from in hopes of reaching Europe. As a direct result of this reality, the statistics on the overall number of refugees that leave Morocco each and every year in the hope of reaching Europe are even less concrete as compared to the numbers that have previously been illustrated for Libya; however, the United Nations expects that approximately 25-30 thousands individuals attempt this journey each and every year. The situation that prompts them to attempt this daring bid for a better life are, however, somewhat different than the situations that prompt those individuals feeling from the port of Benghazi. Ultimately, the traffic through Morocco is primarily the result of individuals feeling from the West Coast of Africa. With the exception of a few repressive governments there, the situation is mostly peaceful; a notable exception to this peaceful existence being concentric upon the ethnic and religious fighting that has recently been exhibited in Niger. However, the greatest encouragement for individuals that utilize the Moroccan route are nonetheless predicate upon poverty, hardship, and political instability/upheaval. This stands in noted contrast to the issues that prompt individuals that use the Benghazi route. Nevertheless, most immigrants that seek out the Moroccan route and attempt to enter Europe this way from from West of the nation of Chad. The reason behind this has to do with the fact that geography and the difficulty of traveling through the Sahara necessarily precludes the Benghazi route and makes the Moroccan route more or less a vital reality of geographic proximity as opposed to choice. Another interesting differential that exists between these two routes has to do with cost. The cost of paying a smuggler to assist one in attempting to flee to Europe via the port of Benghazi is nearly 1/3 the price that it typically requires to hire a similar smuggler to perform the same service from Morocco to Spain. In effect, the Moroccan route most notably is used by Nigerian, Mauritian, Congolese, Cameroonian, and Malian immigrants. Although this is most certainly not an exhaustive list, it helps to capture the statistics for those Africans that leverage this particular route the most. Impact: Human Rights Whereas these two routes have been discussed somewhat independently up until this juncture, it must be understood that the overall impact that they have are quite similar. The first of these impact is with respect to human rights. Ultimately, even though many individuals willingly made the journey from various are to either Benghazi or Morocco, there are countless thousands that do so unwilling. Although you might wish to broach the subject, sex trafficking and slavery are still very much a part of the way in which smuggling and human trafficking continue to exist. As a direct result of the fact that federal organizations and corrupt government officials oftentimes control the trade, there will cooperation with crime syndicates throughout the world, and specifically within Europe, is quite high. As such, many young girls are and sold within Africa and transported along these routes as a means of fulfilling and order that might be exhibited within the software Europe. In other cases, women that are not bought and sold within Africa are promised that upon arriving in Europe they will be providing with a job that will allow them to pay off debt that they owe to the human traffickers. Invariably, these “jobs” are as sex workers. As can be seen, this particular that and impact of human trafficking throughout Africa and Europe creates a situation that is not unlike slavery. Additionally, apart from the examples of sex trafficking and slavery to the most part in denoted, is also common for laborers to be brought to Europe and provided an unusually low salary as a function of “paying their debt” or keeping their families safe. Once again, this is yet another example of the way in which human traffickers take advantage of the hardship that these exhibit; seeking to gain even further from the fruit of their labors and oftentimes tricking them into situations that might be far worse than those they left behind in Africa. The United Nations typically defines human trafficking as international organized transnational crime. For this very purpose, the United Nations reached an international agreement entitled “The UN Convention against Transnational Organized Crime”; specifically targeting trafficking protocol is one of the first major issues that must be engaged. With regards to the actual definition of human trafficking, this particular analysis will refer to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights as a means of defining the way in which the reader should approach the issue throughout the course of this analysis. As such, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights defines human trafficking as the following: “…the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring, or receipt of persons, by means of threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of the production, of fraud, a perception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or the giving up of receiving payments or benefits to achieve the consent that a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation. Exploitation shall include, at a minimum, the exploitation of the prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labor or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of organs” (UNDHR). With such a broad and expansive definition, it is clear to understand that human trafficking spans far beyond merely a term that specifies a particular level of sexual exploitation or even modern-day slavery. However, the horrific reality is that human trafficking oftentimes originates in these poorest regions and extends to the wealthiest societies around the world; the United States of course being one of these. Due to the fact that human trafficking is so varied and is controlled by a litany of different organized criminal networks that seek to maximize profitability and achieve their own unique goals, this particular analysis will analyze human trafficking based upon the two clear and distinct subcategories that it falls into; forced sexual labor as well as any and all other forced forms of labor. Although it is true that organ removal, child theft, and several other notable characteristics exist within the umbrella definition of human trafficking, these occur to such a small degree and overall statistical level that they do not bear the level of analysis that either or sexual labor or other forms of forced labor command. Far and away the most common form of human trafficking is directed towards feeding the worldwide sex trade. Although each and every member of global society that is caught up in human trafficking is at risk, those that are trafficked for the sex trade are perhaps at the greatest risk for loss of life, deprivation of basic rights, loss of youth and a litany of other ills. This increased risk that victims of sexual trafficking are faced with is the direct result of the fact that those who are trafficked for sex are invariably women and children (Zhu 1). Due to the fact that this particular aspect of the economy exists completely outside the purview of the requisite authorities, there is no consideration made with regards to the age of consent; least of all whether or not the individuals who are trafficked have any understanding of what type of a miserable existence awaits them once they reach their destination. Moreover, sexual slavery is not merely confined to work in strip clubs, it spans the gamut from child prostitution to an actual transaction by which one individual buys another to use as his/her personal sex slave for as long as they so desire. Due to the fact that many of the individuals that have been coerced into being bought and sold had little if any indication that they would find themselves in such a situation, it is oftentimes the primary desire for them to escape and find a way out of the horrific living situation and circumstances abundance of them. Effectively, human trafficking is an aspect of the illicit economy that not only impacts upon the individuals trafficked, but impacts upon entire societies around the globe. Beyond the fact that these visuals have had their basic rights removed from them, they are oftentimes faced with a situation in which they will work, oftentimes without pay, until such a time as their masters no longer have any use for them. At such a time, they will be kicked to the streets with little to no personal belongings in a foreign land with no friends, no family, and little if any belief that officials could offer them a degree of hope. Although there are a number of issues that command attention of global authorities, it is the belief of this particular author that human trafficking should be one of the preeminent concerns. This is due to the fact that it not only involves the gross violation of human rights and the coercion of the disadvantaged but that it also affects children from the poorest regions of the world; oftentimes finding themselves sold into horrific conditions where they are sexually and physically abused in the worst possible ways for what remains of their youth or their lives. A further impact with regard to human rights has to do with the way in which Europe engages with the influx of illegal immigrants and seek or each and every year. Ultimately, much like the United States, Europe attempts to represent opportunity, freedom, democracy for places around the globe that are still struggling to achieve these determinants of human existence. As such, is partially incumbent upon Europe to seek to provide at least a small percentage of the individual that seek asylum within its borders permanent residence. This is something of a slippery slope. Firstly, from a humanitarian perspective, one can immediately note that need to preserve the cultural legacy and dynamic of Europe necessarily requires that only a small number of refugees or asylum seekers be admitted into the country at any one point in time. Yet, balanced against this reality is the need to promote the welfare and human rights of as many individuals as possible. Impact: Economic The reality of the impact of this illegal immigration into Europe and only truly be understood with respect to an economic analysis. Ultimately, whether or not your hails from the Port of Benghazi or whether or not they arrive on the shores of Europe via the coast of Morocco, the economic impact of this illegal immigration are uniform. For instance, considering the extraordinarily high level of sophisticated technology, personnel, time, and effort that the harvest of Europe has directed towards stemming the tide of illegal immigration, it can immediately be noted that a primary cause of illegal immigration has to do with the money that extended as a means of reducing it. However, this particular understanding a little in comparison with respect to the overall amount of money that is required be stands as a means of staffing and equipping detention centers and agitation points through which the immigrants are either of entry into Europe or refused and returned to their native countries. Sadly, even though a great deal of money is spent on equipping these detention centers and feeding those that are there, as well as housing, clothing, and speaking whatever medical needs they may have, the conditions that are oftentimes represented within these are abysmal to say the least. Yet, this only captures the very tip of the iceberg with respect to the overall economic impact that illegal immigration from Africa, and elsewhere, has on Europe and its budget. Beyond the cost of patrolling the seas, staffing detention centers and providing for the immediate needs of those that are there, there is the added economic burden of paying for the return trip for all those asylum seekers/illegal immigrants that are denied entry into Europe. Further, and most importantly, the true economic cost of this immigration is felt at the point in time that immigrants and potential asylum seekers either are approved for entry into the European Union or they successfully make it past the checkpoints and arrive within Europe. As such, these individuals invariably require a litany of services that the social safety nets of European countries are obligated to provide (Hamid 1). These include, housing, education, medical care, and assistance in training to achieve different types of labor. With all of these requirements, it comes as little surprise that the actual per immigrant cost that the European Union expends is invariably high; as compared to other nations that absorb immigrants each and every year. When one considers the fact that these immigrants are oftentimes untrained, unskilled, and un-educated, the role and potential usefulness that they can provide to the economy is quite low; placing a further pressure upon the system. This creates a hardship on Europe as it creates a situation that no matter how much aid is provided or how much social safety net is assured, the possibility of the individual to achieve a high earning job and pay back into the system in terms of the overall taxes they are obligated to pay will not affect a situation in which there is a breakeven point for the investment and aid that the government has thus far provided to them. Conclusion: At the current juncture, there are only two options available to the European Union with regard to the impacts and economics of the immigration that has been described. The current path is economically untenable; especially considering the fact that the European economy has grown at such a sluggish rate over the past decade. Moreover, even though it is a requirement of a democratic and free society to assimilate those that wish to join such a society, the rate of assimilation cannot exceed that of the economic capacity for assimilation. In order to continue to accept immigrants and asylum seekers from Africa at the current rate, it will be necessary for Europe to reduce its safety net; thereby negatively impacting upon all stakeholders within its society. In the event that such a tactic is not encouraged and performed, then it will be necessary for Europe to cut the rate of accepted immigrants and more strongly police the transit ways through which they commonly come. Works Cited Coluccello, Salvatore, and Simon Massey. "Out Of Africa: The Human Trade Between Libya And Lampedusa." Trends In Organized Crime 10.4 (2007): 77-90. SocINDEX with Full Text. Web. 2 May 2014. Hamid, Khatan. "Morocco Faces Human Trafficking Crisis." Africa News Service 2013: Business Insights: Essentials. Web. 2 May 2014. Jenkins, Sarah. "Morocco should adopt victim-centred approach to combat human trafficking - UN expert." M2 Presswire 2013: Business Insights: Essentials. Web. 2 May 2014. Mahmoud, Mohammed. "Libyas record wont stop U.S. aid; Among nations faulted over human trafficking abuses." The Washington Times (Washington, DC) 2012: Business Insights: Essentials. Web. 2 May 2014. Zhu, Li. "Envoy says Libya can no longer tolerate human trafficking, illegal migrants." BBC Monitoring International Reports 2009: Business Insights: Essentials. Web. 2 May 2014. Read More

Works Cited

Coluccello, Salvatore, and Simon Massey. "Out Of Africa: The Human Trade Between Libya And Lampedusa." Trends In Organized Crime 10.4 (2007): 77-90. SocINDEX with Full Text. Web. 2 May 2014.

Hamid, Khatan. "Morocco Faces Human Trafficking Crisis." Africa News Service 2013: Business Insights: Essentials. Web. 2 May 2014.

Jenkins, Sarah. "Morocco should adopt victim-centered approach to combat human trafficking - UN expert." M2 Presswire 2013: Business Insights: Essentials. Web. 2 May 2014.

Mahmoud, Mohammed. "Libya's record won't stop U.S. aid; Among nations faulted over human trafficking abuses." The Washington Times (Washington, DC) 2012: Business Insights: Essentials. Web. 2 May 2014.

Zhu, Li. "Envoy says Libya can no longer 'tolerate' human trafficking, illegal migrants." BBC Monitoring International Reports 2009: Business Insights: Essentials. Web. 2 May 2014.

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