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Are people smugglers the good guys or bad guys?

Greed, desperation and a lack of alternatives have turned migration to Europe into a scourge.

The topic of this discussion is aforeign trip that Oiza’s peers and family do not agree to, but Chair, as the older man is called, has learned that convincing him otherwise is very unlikely.

After much begging, the latter gave him one million naira to cover his existing debts and pay the first instalment to the trafficker, a Benin native who is well travelled and hardened by the Sahara.

The second instalment has been much harder to come by and Oiza, now surrounded by the young men who frequent Chair’s compound in the evening, tries to make his case for why he should be assisted on this life-defining journey.

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“Chair, all my body don go Italy”, he says in that manner that only the true Bini accent can allow. “I wan go, the guy wey go carry us cross now, e don dey disturb me and as you don give am money, e good make you just finish am”.

The trafficker, whose exact name never comes up during the conversation has begun to show signs that Oiza’s journey to Libya is a near reality. This promise has had its effects on Oiza himself, and he knows, he says.

With little room to manoeuvre, Chair promises to find the final instalment. Weeks later, he gives Oiza a final 500,000 naira.

Oiza leaves Benin on a cold morning in April 2016. After 8 days on the road, no-one hears from him anymore.

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Give us your opinion:

For decades, Africans from as far as down south have travelled through the Sahara, into  Libya in a bid to get to European border countries like Spain and Italy.

Libya has become the most important transit country for this purpose, and the scourge of illegal migration has plagued it since before Gaddafi’s fall.

Why are people embarking on this treacherous journey?

In recent times, however, the rate of illegal migration has amplified. The insecurity in Libya, coupled with civil unrest in countries like Burundi and South Sudan and poor economic conditions have led thousands more on that infamous trip up the continent.

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At the moment, it is estimated that nearly 5% of all foreigners in Libya are illegal immigrants en route Europe.

It goes without saying that this is a booming industry.

In 2017, the influx of Africans into Europe gained greater prominence as an international conversation.

Certain countries came up more than others and Nigeria was one of them.

Every year, thousands of Nigerians leave the country to make that treacherous journey. In the south, particularly in the city of Benin, young men look to Spain and Italy as the holy grail.

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Where they can, they make the push to embark on that journey.

Oiza is one of them.

As the migrant crisis becomes a greater problem, the question is often asked; are people smugglers the good guys or the bad guys? Do they solve or create a problem? who is to blame for the tens of thousands struggling to make their way through the continent of their birth on one of history’s most dangerous journeys?

It is often easy to point accusatory fingers at the people who make this trip happen.

To understand this better, one must first look at the migrants who use their services.

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Desperation and a lack of alternatives

For people, like Oiza, it is often of a question of choosing between an open desert and a brick wall.

In 2016, the Nigerian economy was hit by its first recession in 25 years. However, that statistic does not perfectly capture the adverse economic conditions and the lack of alternatives that drive young people in Africa’s most populous nation into desperation.

In cities like Benin, young men learn to come to terms with a lack of options, With few employment opportunities and little infrastructure to support any independent initiatives, there’s little space to manoeuvre.

Comrade Sunny Ofehe, founder/Executive Director of the Hope for Niger Delta Campaign has lived in Europe for 22 years. From here, he makes frequent visits to cities like Benin where he studies the root causes of the spread of illegal migration.

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“Young people who are not engaged positively face a lot of challenges due to the fact that their socio-economic standard has dropped. What you can see are graduates who end up not having jobs”, he told Vanguard Newspaper in 2016.

“So the youth begin to find alternative means of survival and they start becoming vulnerable. Then you see people who come to them promising juicy lifestyle and better life in Europe”

From there, it is a slippery slope.

In other cases, some of these young people explore what they can find and try their hands at less-than-ideal means of making a living. With time, however, the accountant comes calling.

Gang warfare in Benin is a major source of concern for residents. For young men who get involved with criminal gangs, getting marked means you have to leave.

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This is partly Oiza’s case.

“My brother, I no fit tell you wetin I don do”, he tells me on a hot Sunday afternoon in April.

“Even Chair no know, but if I no comot this town, them go kill me. I have to enter Libya”, he emphasises.

If survival is the instinct that drives this decision to leave and in the larger sense, illegal migration, then it should be obvious to blame the traffickers who sell illusions and false dreams to vulnerable young people. Or should it?

A trade in dreams and persons

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It should be noted that there are two dimensions to trafficking.

There’s the form where the trafficker deals directly with the victim. He meets the victim and dangles the prospect of a job in a foreign country, usually Italy. The trafficker invest in the victims travel where he cannot completely cover the cost of his trip.

From this point, the victim becomes indebted to the trafficker; a debt which is not as easy to ay as money would ordinarily allow.

On the other hand, there are traffickers, usually bigwigs in their communities, who are known for helping people cross. Where a young person like Oiza decides to leave for Libya and request their services, they provide a bill of costs that can run into as much as 10 million naira.

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The promise sold is that the trip will not be as strenuous as it is reported to be and they will, supposedly, use contacts they have built to side-step the infamous dangers of the journey.

Buoyed by this flimsy assurance, families do all they can to raise the money.

They sell businesses, properties and take loans because, in the midst of dire straits, it is seen as the last hope.

It is important to see here that the common denominator is money.

The trafficking of persons across the North of Africa is worth billions of dollars. Beyond taking the cost of ferrying these victims to Europe, other gory sub-industries have arisen.

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Last year, international news media uncovered slave camps where illegal migrants, mostly Africans, were sold into slavery.

It is also not uncommon to find migrants doing menial jobs in Libya in the hopes of paying debts incurred for their transit that can run into thousands of dollars.

This is where traffickers are the bad guys. The business of trafficking is often shrouded in lies and ruthlessness.

Most traffickers have little control of the trip beyond Nigeria and surrounding nations like Chad and Niger. Midway through the trip, they hand the migrants over to Arabs or traffickers of other nationalities for the second half of the journey. This is usually the most dangerous part.

However, migrants are not intimated that this will happen. In most cases, these other traffickers request for payment and the unwitting migrants are thrown into a conundrum in the middle f the desert with no options.

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In the end, it is a sad case of taking advantage of others for monetary gain.

Desperation, greed and a survivalist mentality are a dangerous mix.

Those with power must take responsibility

It is why, when it is all said and done, it is the societies which provide the circumstances for these problems to arise which should be blamed.

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It goes without saying that most of these illegal migrants would not even consider leaving if there was hope at home.

Over years, the government has neglected the Nigerian youth. In Benin, companies like Canada Dry which provided employment to thousands have either folded up or moved shop to neighbouring countries.

Most leave Nigeria and their families as a last resort.

To stem this scourge from its root, these problems must be solved. Infrastructure would be a good place to start. Nigeria’s population is set to grow by over 100 million people in the next 30 years. There will be hands to put to work but the appropriate conditions must be put in place.

On the other hand, it is also important to highlight the role that Libya plays in all of this.

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Even though it is now making efforts to do so, the government of Libya does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking.

Libya is placed on Tier 2 Watch List for its failure to provide evidence of increasing efforts to address trafficking in persons over the previous year, particularly in the area of investigating and prosecuting traffickers.

It goes without saying that where the conditions for illegal migration are ideal, traffickers will explore opportunities to their hilt.

There is much to be said for the fact that it took a viral campaign regarding slave trade in Libya for attention to be drawn to the migrant crisis in Africa.

However, if this will be whittled down, Africa’s nations and their leaders will have to hold themselves responsible.

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The question is not whether the people smugglers are good or bad guys. It is whether the continent’s leaders have proved worthy of its people.

The answer sadly is no. While we must stem the problem and bring those involved in this crime to book, we must also begin to solve what is a continent-wide, institutional problem.

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