Falling prey to human smuggling and trafficking as well money laundering Ethiopia is listed as one of East and North Africa countries beefing up the financial muscle of criminal network, so disclosed East Africa Security and Peace Command post.
Speaking on IGAD and Interpol partnership establishment, East Africa Security and Peace on behalf of Ethiopia, Commander Abebe Muluneh said that Moyale, Metema, Gambella, and Tog Wajaale borders are marked as the main routes of human trafficking and smuggling.
Adding he said that as Ethiopia has active engagement in the overall performance of IGAD’s mission and goals, in collaboration with IGAD and Interpol, the government has vowed to thwart smuggling and trafficking networks, to gradually contain migration and to continuously negotiate the monitoring task of migration by deploying all possible forces and supplying the necessary logistic inputs.
Paul Stanfield, Interpol Director of Organized and Emerging Crime, on his part said that the overall objective of the intended crackdown action is to reduce the number of incidents of human trafficking and people smuggling through an enhanced regional capacity. It aims at better tracking and sharing information on irregular migration flows and associated criminal networks. It as well helps to develop common strategies and shared look to fight human trafficking and people smuggling.
He noted that countering people smuggling and trafficking is one of Interpol’s priorities. In its unique position, the organization provides a wide-range of policing activities and skill upgrading trainings to its member countries in order to support their efforts to identify victims and dismantle criminal networks and prosecute traffickers.
He pointed out that organized criminal groups capitalize on the lucrativeness of enterprises of the aforementioned nature by targeting the most vulnerable, including those fleeing conflict or abject poverty. Obviously such victims prove willing to pay considerable amount for their voyages. Increasingly, irregular migrants find themselves at the mercy of smuggling groups and are at risk of becoming victims of human trafficking through forced conditions and exploitation and other forms of exploitation.
He stated that people smuggling and trafficking are complex crimes. Probing into the case requires constant analysis of trends. Hence, it transnational character presupposes coordination and cooperation. Through its network of 194 member countries, Interpol is in a unique position to connect law enforcement organizations in source transit and destination countries, a view to identifying, protects victims and dismantling organized criminal groups engaging in trafficking.
He remarked that due to the magnitude and nature of these challenges, the African Union and IGAD have recognized the need to enhance the regional capacity to circumvent these hurdles. In particular they focused on greater cooperation among countries of the region and institutionalized structures processes to enable information sharing.
In account of the finances of criminal networks responsible for human smuggling and trafficking, EU’s Emergency Trust Fund for Africa study paper reported that smuggling out of Ethiopia is facilitated by agents that are part of an intricate web of expansive international networks. These agents recruit would-be migrants and arrange the logistics, mainly, through legal means that are backed by complex money laundering schemes.
The study paper highlighted that travel agencies are used as covers to legitimately provide clients being smuggled with legal visas and commercial air travel arrangements, most commonly to Saudi Arabia or GULF states.
The paper mentioned that the Ethiopian government is vigilant in attempts to hack through criminal networks. It is the only country in the horn of Africa to have completed a national risk assessment in which it identified human trafficking as one of the six key risks that has a major impact on the people, security and economy of the country.
Dilating on the issue the study paper illustrated that the Ethiopian government has declared trafficking and smuggling of human beings as one of its top priorities for counter-action. In August 2018, military cooperation between Sudan and Ethiopia in the form of a joint military task force was established in order to combat trafficking and smuggling human beings. However, smugglers and traffickers have been largely unaffected by the task force.
The Ethiopian Herald Sunday May 19, 2019
BY MEHARI BEYENE
