Smuggling
as a service
In reality smuggling services have little in common with the
scenario of organized crime that the leaders of security design for us. The
scenario is calculated to cause fear, and make political actions and budgets
appear legitimate.
A flight is naturally costly. Passports must be acquired and forged, contacts
must be established and travel routes must be organized; the routes are
often indirect, they must be protected from the secret service and other opponents,
and the transport costs and road duties are considerable.
The business transaction is similar to other service deals, the customer
books often at a fixed price, then pays and receives a more or less valuable
service in return. There are special offers and cheap tickets and luxury transfers,
similar to other branches competing on the free market. The customer usually
gets a guarantee. The market competition forces the service providers to come
up with detailed offers and some quality of service; a badly organized journey
will be talked about and is unwelcome publicity. It will increase the costs
as well.
The intense regulations, especially the restrictive measures in border
control increase the costs of smuggling adventures. A study on human smuggling
requested by the UNHCR (UN refugee agency) concludes that state measures are
themselves part of the problem.
“This report analyses the response of European governments to the increasing
problems of human trafficking and smuggling, and concludes that much
of existing policy-making is part of the problem and not the solution. Refugees
are now
forced to use illegal means if they want to access Europe at all. The
direction of current policy risks not so much solving the problem of trafficking,
but
rather ending the right of asylum in Europe, one of the most fundamental
of all human rights”.
Jim Morrison
In speaking of costs it should be mentioned that the German state generates
some income. Aside from bribe money, which can be seen as unofficial fees or
taxes, there is the official skim off. The German border control unit BGS claim
a ‘flight punishment fee’, like highwaymen with legal protection.
Article 153 in the code of criminal procedure allows the executive authorities
to take fines for illegal border crossing without a warrant or a lawsuit.
The average fee is between 150 and 250 Euro. All cash gets seized from the
detained
except for around 25 Euro, which they are allowed to keep.
The border control
authorities do not operate only in the border area, they also execute
controls ‘without
suspicion’ in places like train stations. In some known incidents the
detained were left with only 40 Euro, while any other money carried, often
making up the entire amount of personal cash, was confiscated – although
the BGS is not authorized to do so.
