THE ECONOMIST - May 13th 2015
THE SMUGGLING of people across the Mediterranean is not new; nor
are the losses at sea that come with it. But the trade has vastly
expanded over the past few years thanks to two developments. The civil
war in Syria has displaced 8m people inside that country and forced 4m
to leave it. Most of these refugees stay in neighbouring countries. But
many wish to go farther. Some head for Libya, either by crossing Egypt
or by flying to Sudan and joining one of the smuggling routes that cross
the Sahara. There they will meet refugees fleeing Eritrea, a country
which, with its mixture of indefinite military service, torture,
arbitrary detention and all-round government repression has one of the
worst human-rights records in the world. Libya is now another casualty
of the Arab spring. So the smuggling routes which used to take people
there as an end in itself—moving there was an attractive proposition for
many in sub-Saharan Africa, thanks to an oil-rich economy—now continue
right through it and into the sea.
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