Tracking the Financial Flows of Criminal Networks

Human smuggling is a business that profits from the exploitation and suffering of migrants. As thousands of migrants flee from conflicts in the Middle East and seek re-settlement in the United Kingdom (UK), they often turn to human smugglers in order to avoid the legal challenges of migration. Surging demand for these services has given rise to a robust and lucrative international smuggling business.

In order to confront this growing trend, this report seeks to analyze the financial flows of criminal networks that facilitate illegal migration to the UK. Further, the report uses Pakistan, Nigeria, and Turkey as case studies to analyze the routes, methods, and financial systems used by criminal networks and migrants. Finally, this report offers policy recommendations that can contribute to the reduction of illegal migration.

Key Findings

The business models of migrant smuggling networks vary depending on the size and location of the network, as well as the relative presence of law enforcement.

• Small regional groups often operate autonomously, while larger international networks take on the characteristics of organized crime.
• Most networks rely on a “crime-as-service” business model, in which individual criminals act as contractors, providing specialized services such as recruitment, transportation, border navigation, document forgery, and bribes to multiple customers.
• Smuggling networks rely primarily on cash transactions for financing, as well as informal transaction systems, such as hawala.

Smuggling networks depend on centralized migration hubs to consolidate their business.

• Regional migration hubs near the English Channel are critical to facilitating transport into the UK; these hubs are not easily eliminated due to the free movement of migrants throughout the Schengen area.
• Larger  migration  hubs,  such  as  those  in  Turkey,  attract  the  presence  of  organized smuggling networks. These organized criminal networks leverage greater resources to facilitate mass-transportation, and full-facilitation packages.

Case studies of Nigeria, Pakistan, and Turkey all reveal the prevalence of the “crime-as-a-service” or network business model of human smuggling.  However, while these organizations were structurally similar, their actual methods varied.

• In all three cases, usage of fraudulent documents emerged as a common tool used by human smugglers to facilitate illegal migration.
• In Pakistan, the prevalence of sham marriages distinguished it from the other two.

Recommendations

• Law enforcement organizations must address the role of social media in the coordination and advertisement of smuggling services.
• Intergovernmental collaboration must be improved upon, particularly between countries with large migration hubs and those that are favored destinations.
• The Pakistani government must address the growth of unregulated visa consultancies.
• Legal frameworks concerning definitions of human smuggling, and protections for migrants, must be readdressed at the international level.
• Law enforcement organizations must expand cooperation with financial institutions in order to better identify suspicious financial activity associated with human smuggling.