Across the desert, across the sea : human smuggling into and from Libya

Abstract

Over the past decade, Libya has emerged as one of the most important transit countries for irregular migration toward the EU. Since around 2000, a growing number of migrants from sub-Saharan African countries have sought to reach European shores from Libya. A commonly held perception has been that this growing flow of undocumented migrants through and from Libya to Europe has not only been an issue of irregular migration as such but also of human smuggling and organized crime. It is often claimed that the transport of migrants by boat across the (Central) Mediterranean, as well as during earlier parts of migrants’ journey toward Europe, has been in the hands of highly organized transnational crime syndicates that have been deriving huge profits from this business.