Human smuggling and trafficking is a lucrative business for terrorists and organized crime groups who thrive in the absence of stability and sound governance. Waves of illegal migrants from the Horn of Africa are trying to take advantage of instability in Yemen to smuggle themselves into Saudi Arabia.
In late 2014, thousands of Africans, mostly from Ethiopia, were using the Gulf of Aden and Yemen as transit points to reach what they hoped would be jobs in Saudi Arabia. With this illegal migration comes increased opportunity for trafficking in weapons drugs and other contraband – all potential money makers for nefarious groups.
“[Humans, Weapons, Drugs and Contraband] trafficking is responsible for billions of dollars in profit earned by criminal organizations worldwide, and has been progressively more linked to the activities of violent extremist organizations including al-Qaida and like-minded groups,” according to a report called “The Nexus of Extremism and Trafficking” produced by Joint Special Operations University. “Illicit trafficking also undermines democratic institutions and economic growth, directly impacting trade, transportation, and transactional systems.”
Officials have been attempting to address the problem for years. For instance, Yemen summoned a Regional Conference on Asylum and Migrations in November 2013 that led to the deportation of 200,000 Africans to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and Mogadishu, Somalia. The conference, which resulted in an anti-smuggling commitment known as the Sana Declaration, was attended by regional partners Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
But the more recent conflict in Yemen has opened the door to a resumption of human smuggling. Some of the migrants are making a second attempt to cross Yemen. “Many of the migrants in the new spike are the same ones that were returned by the Saudis at the start of the year,” Christopher Horwood, coordinator of the Nairobi-based Regional Mixed Migration Secretariat, told the IRIN news agency in late 2014.
Although trafficking is difficult to stop in light of the economic disparity between Saudi Arabia and the Horn of Africa, regional cooperation, good governance and stronger border security can help reduce the problem, experts say.