Migrant, Refugee, Smuggler, Savior

Migrant, Refugee, Smuggler, Savior investigates one of the most under-examined aspects of the great migration crisis of our time. As millions seek passage to Europe in order to escape conflicts, repressive governments, and poverty, their movements are enabled and actively encouraged by professional criminal networks that earn billions of dollars.

Many of these smugglers carry out their activities with little regard for human rights, which has led to a manifold increase in human suffering, not only on the Mediterranean Sea, but also along the overland smuggling routes that cross the Sahara and penetrate deep into the Balkans and the hidden corners of Europe's capitals. Yet some smugglers are revered as saviors by those they move, for it is they who deliver men, women, and children to a safer place and a better life. Disconcertingly, it is often criminals who help the most desperate among us when the international system turns them away.

This book is a measured attempt, born of years of research and reporting in the field, to better understand how people-smuggling networks function, the ways in which they have evolved, and what they mean for peace and security in the future.

Peter Tinti is an independent journalist and Senior Research Fellow at the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organised Crime. Formerly based in West Africa, his writing, reporting, and photography has appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Foreign Policy and Vice, among other outlets.

Tuesday Reitano has been studying organized crime networks and their impact on governance, conflict and development for over twenty years, both in the UN System, and as the head of the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organised Crime, which she co-founded in 2013. She is based in Beirut, Lebanon.