Current_Trends_and_Related_Challenges_web

Current Trends and Challenges
5.7 Organizational structure of migrant smuggling
groups and networks
5.7.1 Smuggling of Chinese nationals
In the context of migrant smuggling from China,
the term ‘snakehead’ is used to refer to individuals
and networks involved in taking Chinese nationals,
especially from Fujian Province, to North America
and Western Europe. The traditional concept of
these syndicates is a hierarchical model, headed
by one or more snakeheads who reside in Hong
Kong (China), Macau (China), the Taiwan Province
of China or, in some cases, in a destination country.
Under the snakeheads is a range of mid-level
operators who coordinate the smuggling ventures
and, in some cases, run front companies or offer
the services of migration agents. At the bottom
level are those who recruit smuggled migrants
and persons who may transport or conceal them.
The bottom-tier operators may, however, report
directly to the snakeheads. 88 Another feature
of these criminal organizations is the division of
labour and the assignment of roles, which include,
inter alia, ‘recruiters, coordinators, transporters,
document vendors, public officials, guides, crew
members, enforcers and debt collectors’. 89
These structured and highly organized groups were
a common and typical feature of the smuggling
of Chinese migrants in the 1990s, but it is not
clear to what extent this model of organization
and operation still persists today. More recent
literature suggests that a less hierarchical
structure is common and that the smuggling of
Chinese migrants involves more loose affiliations
of groups and individuals who operate together in
a flexible, lateral manner. 90
The available literature on the smuggling of
Chinese migrants to Western Europe, for the most
part, suggests that the groups and individuals
involved continue to be highly organized and
maintain a degree of control and oversight over
much of the process. 91 It has been stressed,
however, that the level of control and oversight
exercised by the Chinese smugglers, which may
also involve extended family networks, does
not automatically suggest that these migrant
smuggling organizations are hierarchical, triadlike
syndicates. Europol noted in 2011 that there
was little evidence of any involvement of Chinese
triads in the smuggling of migrants to Europe. 92
Others describe the groups involved in the
smuggling of Chinese migrants from China to
Europe as interconnected, horizontal networks
in which several ‘stage coordinators’ control
different legs and aspects of the smuggling
process. These stage coordinators have a degree
of seniority and oversight and delegate specific
tasks and functions to low-ranking individuals.
The stage coordinators appear to be connected
by, and report to, a higher level of organizers
who generally remain in China, and who maintain
responsibility for the financial aspects of the
smuggling ventures. Document forgery and
falsification also appear to be undertaken centrally
in China. 93 There is evidence of Chinese migrant
smuggling groups using, or otherwise working in
conjunction with, local groups and individuals who
are usually employed or hired to exercise specific
functions. Several European sources, for instance,
described ‘enforcers’ of Vietnamese background
who were employed by Chinese smugglers to
use force against and intimidate others and
that Vietnamese, Turkish and Slovakian criminal
groups work with Chinese smugglers for various
purposes. 94
The smuggling networks also tend to have
coordinators in the European destination
countries who stay informed of changing law
enforcement activities, immigration policies
and the like in order to adapt their methods or
routes accordingly. These coordinators and the
information they provide are said to determine
the fee for the smuggling venture, which is
communicated back to the organizers in China.
Reportedly, the Chinese diaspora rather than the
smugglers meet and ‘receive’ smuggled migrants
when they arrive at an intended destination. 95
5.7.2 Smuggling of DPR Korea nationals
Among the groups and individuals involved in
smuggling DPR Korea migrants are compatriots
residing and operating in China and who have
established networks to move migrants across
China to South-East Asia. Several Chinese groups
that smuggle DPR Korea nationals via China and
South-East Asia to the Republic of Korea have
been identified. 96
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