#labour migration

[migrantsday]

Establish government programmes for labour migration.

Ways in which government can promote safe migration.

[africaindustrializationday]

Harness regional connectedness, integration, broader trade, labour migration or development goals, consistent with the Global Goals.

The Free Movement of Persons in Africa, a flagship programme of the African Union's Agenda 2063, is an aspiration for the continent or a tool for harnessing regional connectedness, integration, broader trade, labour migration or development goals, consistent with the Global Sustainable Goals of the United Nations 2030.

African Union Free Movement of Persons and Goods

[thozhar]

Indian tea production has been in severe crisis since the mid nineties largely due to neo-liberal structural adjustments in the Indian economy. The size of the tea industry, which is second only to China and accounts for 25 percent of global tea production, has made this a huge blow to the country’s agrarian economy. The industry employs 1.26 million people on tea plantations and two million additional people indirectly. As such, the economic crisis has had an enormous impact on the lives of local residents. In Kerala where I have been conducting research, there have been eight cases of suicide and twelve deaths due to starvation on tea plantations since 2001. Along with utter poverty and famine, tea plantation workers have faced increasingly unhygienic work environments, shattered social life/community relations, and withdrawal of the welfare measures previously enjoyed. The crisis punctured the isolated environments of the plantations and precipitated neoliberal reforms that closed down production in many areas either partially or completely. While many families remained on the plantations, large numbers of workers who had lived there for more than five generations were now compelled to seek work outside. Some went with their families to either their ancestral villages or regional industrial townships such as Coimbatore and Tirupur in Tamil Nadu. These plantation workers have now joined the ranks of the massive Dalit workforce powering India’s unorganised and informal sectors. In joining that pool of workers, Tamil Dalit labourers are exposed to aspects of a caste-ridden society from which they had previously been shielded. The situation of Saraswathi, a female retired worker in her early sixties, illustrates the dilemma and struggles of the workers who moved out the plantations.

— The hidden injuries of caste: south Indian tea workers and economic crisis by Jayaseelan Raj

[hjohn3]

An Honest Conversation

It’s Time to Tell the Truth About U.K. Migration

Source: Briefings for Britain

By Honest John

A NEW government should provide the opportunity for new narratives, particularly after the waste and poison of the Tory years. Perhaps most toxic messaging of the seemingly limitless populist nastiness that the Conservative Party tried to promote in its end years in government was that of the intrinsic evil of immigration, aided every step of the way by the knowing racist cynics of Reform U.K., the Daily Mail, GB News, plus numerous “influencers” and far right commentators filling their social media platforms with faux anger, othering and outright hatred. In fact Richard Tice in the aftermath of the mob law masquerading as patriotic protest last month, urged Keir Starmer to have an “honest conversation” about immigration with the British people. For probably the first time, I find myself agreeing with former leader of Reform: it is high time that the government led an adult conversation about both immigration and asylum seeking with the U.K. population, but not from the perspective of Tice’s fake news: rather from the standpoint of fact.

It is frequently said - not least by commentators on the left - that governments should not try to “educate” the electorate on issues of policy - such an approach is held to be condescending and bound to fail. But if the role of government is not to lead debate, but simply to follow it, despite the fact public opinion maybe characterised by half-truths, false logic, prejudice and conspiracy theory, then what is the role of democratic government at all?

The Right have no such qualms. Whether it is the openly fascist social media activists, the childish provocateurs of GB News, the raging reactionaries of the Mail and the Telegraph, the opportunistic culture warriors of Reform or the sad shambles of the pre-election Tory government, the right wing in this country has majored in lies, deception, false narratives, bogus causations and thinly disguised racism when it comes to discussing immigration and asylum seeking. If a social democratic government, with four years of its term to run and a huge majority, cannot take on the mendacity of the Right in this area, then who can?

Any such counter-narrative should deconstruct the three most obvious and artless propositions of the Right. First, the deliberate and cynical conflation of asylum seeking with general immigration, which are, in fact, very different phenomena; the claim made continually by Nigel Farage during the General Election campaign that the U.K. is experiencing a “population explosion” driven entirely by immigration and the truism, accepted by both Conservatives and Labour and a majority of the population, that migration is “too high”. Although all three contentions are widely repeated, often without challenge by the mainstream media, the third claim is the most widely accepted by people at large, to the extent it is now treated as indisputable fact.

Let’s start with asylum seeking. The general view is that asylum seekers are illegal, disproportionately male and bogus. Also asylum seekers are feather-bedded by a weak system that puts them up in hotels, grants them benefits and does little to control their movements. Other, more extreme tropes follow, promoted by the Right, asserting that they are criminal, terroristic, leeching and generally undesirable. If they are Muslim, then they constitute an existential threat to British values.

Although it is often stated that in a world of conspiracy theory, echo chambers and alternative facts, there is little point is attempting to point out the truth to combat such toxic assertions, in actuality, stating the facts of a disputed issue can be remarkably effective. It is true that many asylum seekers, particularly those making the crossing from France in the notorious “small boats” are illegal. This of course is inevitable, since the Conservatives shut down all legitimate routes into the country except for refugees from Ukraine, Hong Kong and Afghanistan in the aftermath of the Western withdrawal. No other refugees, despite their rights under international law to apply for asylum anywhere, can enter the U.K. legally. In other words, the “problem” of illegal asylum seekers is entirely the creation of the British government, when under international law, “illegal” asylum seeking does not exist. Secondly, the numbers of asylum seekers entering the country remains remarkably small: between 75,000 and 80,000 people claim asylum in the U.K. annually, set against a total migration figure of 1.2 million foreign entrants in 2023 and of a national U.K. population of 67 million people. Despite the deliberate slow down in processing claims instituted by the Tories, partly due to austerity funding reducing capacity to do so, Brexit ending the ability to process claims in France and the then government’s populist urge to keep the issue bubbling, nearly 60% of claimants end up having their claims for humanitarian protection under international law granted; the rest are deported. Interestingly, despite the populist trope to the contrary, the gender balance of those successfully claiming asylum in the U.K. is approximately 50/50 (failed claimants are much more likely to be male). As at 2022, asylum seekers in the U.K., including those waiting for claims to be processed, comprised 0.6% of the total population.

The countries asylum seekers come from include Iran, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Vietnam and Pakistan - all countries that are either authoritarian, have poor human rights records or are actively involved in political, cultural, religious or ethnic oppression. Britain’s obligations in this sphere date back to the 1951 Refugee Convention and are not disputed. By constantly creating hurdles to asylum claims and deliberately making such claims illegal, Britain itself is arguably in breach of international law.

Therefore in terms of numbers and legitimacy, the issue of illegal asylum seeking is largely confected. The scandal is not the uncontrolled arrival of bogus claimants, but the wholly deliberate disruption of the UK’s existing systems in a search for populist votes by a Conservative Party that lost what remained of its moral compass. But Labour’s record is hardly noble: the Blair government also did its utmost to stigmatise some of the most vulnerable people on the planet. What can the Starmer government do to make amends, change the narrative and draw the poison from this dead-end “debate”?

The first action is so obvious as to barely need stating. Although Labour feel more comfortable spouting tough rhetoric about “smashing the criminal gangs”, when the U.K. now barely has a cross-border anti-organised criminal groups agreement thanks to the feebleness of Boris Johnson’s Brexit “deal”, its energies would be more productively directed if the government simply restored safe and legal routes into the country for asylum seekers. The entirely invented “problem” of “illegal” entry would vanish overnight, along with the traffickers’ business model, and the small boats. What refugee would prefer to hand over their life savings to a criminal gang member in return for a leaky dingy than to buy a cross-Channel ticket by plane or ferry in order to secure entry to the U.K. ? It amazes me that Labour have yet to do this and I can only assume it is running scared of Farage as usual. However, without the daily sight of “small boats” arriving on British shores on people’s TV screens, populist antipathy may dissipate, and the long process of humanising the asylum seeker may begin.

Labour is absolutely right to highlight the deliberate and incompetent permitting of claimant backlog to grow by the previous government. Increased funding and workforce to process claims within a fortnight, which was the norm before Cameron’s witless austerity (waits can currently last over a year), would soon see the closure of hotels to house those awaiting their claims to be dealt with, and successful claimants admitted to British society, and unsuccessful ones sent back to their countries of origin. Very quickly the issue that has driven hatred and lynch mobs would cease even to be visible and Britain will have rejoined the community of civilised nations, helping those in greatest need.

Immigration has only a tangental relationship to asylum seeking. Immigration is fundamentally an economic phenomenon: people emigrate in order to find work, not claim benefits, certainly not from Britain’s labyrinthine and punitive welfare system. There is barely a country in the developed world that does not rely on migrant labour to keep aspects of its industrial or service economy going. The fact of low unemployment and unfilled vacancies in the U.K. and the associated fact that sectors such as health and care, deliveries and supply, agriculture and hospitality would simply collapse if all immigration ceased tomorrow, seems to pass many anti-migration bigmouths by. Even when forced by the sheer facts of economic reality to conceded that some migration is required to keep the country’s lights on, these non-experts will still opine that immigration is “too high”. This contention is decades old and so regularly repeated, that this evidence-free assertion has squeezed out any countervailing view. When the politicians and media sagely agree that immigration is too high, by what criteria is the assertion justified? By the number of vacancies in the country proportionate to the workforce available to fill such vacancies? By the relative importance of the various sectors that employ migrants to the overall health of the economy? By the level of verified pressure on public services in those areas where migrants settle? By the level of social strain brought about by the arrival of migrants from different cultures? The short answer is none of the above. To ask such questions would complicate the facile acceptance that migration must be reduced, regardless of truth or implications. The failure of the U.K. to have a mature or factual conversation about what immigration actually is, let alone its required numbers, is one of the biggest indictments of the British political class. It is simply easier to indulge ignorance, prejudice or rank racism than to challenge popular assumptions and state clearly what levels of immigration the country needs and how the phenomenon needs to be managed.

Similarly, the Farageist trope that the country is “full” or that the U.K. is experiencing a population explosion is similarly left unchallenged. In fact, the British population usually increases by about 0.33% a year. That is an annual increase of approximately 210,000 people a year - a gradual rise, not an “explosion”. Even this figure needs to be treated with caution given the government’s bizarre inclusion of foreign students in the calculations, the majority of whom return home after their studies. This zero sum game has resulted in ridiculous promises by (usually Tory) governments to reduce immigration, regardless of the impact of the economy by so doing. The Thatcherite model endured by the U.K. for nearly 40 years has been predicated on low wage, non-unionised and mobile workforces, most easily filled by foreign migration. If the country seriously wants to reduce the number of foreign migrants in the country, perhaps it needs to stop blaming people who are responding to demand and rather re-think its economic model.

Labour needs to end this circular and destructive non-debate, which at best feeds the lack of trust in politicians and at worse results in ethno-nationalist violence on the streets. A blunt and fact-based conversation needs to led by government, pointing out that every advanced economy requires a minimum level of migration to keep industries and services going and that this will never change. There can be a debate about numbers and geographical location of migrants, but simplistic slogans about “reducing” migration are as fatuous as they are impractical. Release of proper research and explanations as to what migration numbers should be on the basis of workforce requirements by sector and geography, public infrastructure, cultural assimilation, and the needs of national economic strategy, should comprise part of the “re-set” Keir Starmer has promised the nation.

Labour still seems gripped by fear of the issue, believing that to be seen as being “soft” on immigration is political suicide. Instead, it should study the results of the 2024 General Election - for all Farage’s megaphone politics on the issue and the divisive populism of a desperate Conservative Party, over 57% of the electorate voted against this toxicity. As the spontaneous response to the summer riots demonstrated, there is a clear majority in this country that recognise the inevitability and desirability of migration and the moral imperative to admit those seeking asylum from death or oppression. After all, Labour has been here before: in the 1960s, Harold Wilson’s government legislated for racial, gender and sexuality justice, in the teeth of ferocious popular and right-wing opposition. It nonetheless led a debate that, over time, produced societal tolerance and a measure of equality for non-white citizens, women and gays. The cul-de-sac the immigration wars have led the country into have fostered ignorance and racism and enabled street fascism and the politics of the pogrom. The survival of British democracy and its values of inclusivity and social justice demand an end to the stupidity and lies of the current contentions concerning migration. Keir Starmer’s government is in a unique position to help the country forge a different path.

The question is: does our new Prime Minister have the stomach for the fight?

2nd September 2024.

[banannasposts]

Everytime I read some news about social democrats trying to out right-wing right-wing parties when it comes to migration I am so glad Doskozil did not win that election to be the leader of the SPÖ

[southeastasianists]

Malaysia intends to bring in 500,000 workers from 15 different Asian countries to solve its labour shortage issues in less-favourable sectors like plantations, agriculture, and construction.

The Covid-19 outbreak has caused over 700,000 foreign employees to return to their home countries, according to Human Resources Minister V. Sivakumar, therefore the labour crisis needs to be resolved right away in order to prevent any negative effects on the economy.

However, human rights activists have argued that the government must halt this process and instead focus on improving the working conditions of migrant workers who are already in the country, which does not seem to be getting better.

World Bank data indicates that there are around 2.9 to 3.3 million migrant workers in Malaysia, of which roughly 1.5 million have irregular employment.

The remaining millions are undocumented, without protection. But most of them are employed and continue to make a significant contribution to the economy and the nation’s future.

Many of these workers, be it documented or not, suffer injustices such as being underpaid, at risk of abuse and confined to poor living conditions despite calls for better migrant worker rights based on strong economic and humanitarian grounds. The abuses were further exacerbated during the pandemic.

In fact,  the US State Department downgraded Malaysia to Tier 3, which is the worst category, in its 2020 Trafficking in Persons Report. It also imposed punitive measures on firms allegedly involved in slave labour by banning imports from glovemakers Top Glove and Supermax, as well as two major palm oil conglomerates.

Malaysia remains in Tier 3 as of last year.

The secretary-general of Socialist Party Malaysia (PSM), Sivarajan Arumugam, told Coconuts the conditions for migrant workers have not improved despite many complaints from workers and civil society.

“Their grouses have not been rectified. Thus PSM would strongly call for a halt on all migrant labour intake until all reforms are executed,” he said.

PSM often works on labour rights issues affecting both local and foreign workers. It has also helped some of these individuals win court cases against their employers.

Sivarajan also highlighted that, during former minister M. Kulasegaran’s time as the Human Resources Minister (MOHR) under Pakatan Harapan, he had instructed an independent commission to study the situation of migrant workers and submit reports to the government.

However, he said the report has been kept under wraps.

“We reiterate that the government should focus on implementing the proposed reforms proposed by the government’s own reports and other CSO’s instead of continuing to bow down to the pressures of the employers that they are crying that they need migrant labour urgently,” he added.

Sivarajan shared with Coconuts a copy of the reform proposal.

Some of these proposed reforms include only allowing the MOHR to manage and monitor all matters relating to migrant workers, speedy initiatives and policies to eradicate the involvement of private agents and companies in the recruitment and supply of workers, and the abolishment of debt bondage by removing recruitment fees charged to workers.

Glorene Daas, executive director of Tenaganita, a human rights non-profit organisation, said the ministry needs to address the lack of personnel at the labour department in order for it to carry out labour inspections more efficiently.

“During high-level government meetings between the labour department and the ministry, the issue is always that they do not have enough personnel, so what are we doing about it is the next question. If we want to address this effectively and seriously, they need to think through how to increase the labour department’s personnel,” she said.

Meanwhile, Su Shern, executive director of Project Liber8, echoed Sivarajan’s concerns.

“I think first we need to acknowledge that the exploitation of migrant workers in Malaysia is still not being addressed. The fact is that migrant workers are still facing long working hours, exploitative conditions, withholding of wages, etc. and I think these are things that we hear and see all the time,” she told Coconuts.

Project Liber8 is a non-profit organisation dedicated to empowering youth to take action against human trafficking, forced labour, exploitation and discrimination among trafficked victims, migrant workers and refugees.

“So what is the government doing currently to ensure we are minimising this and holding the people responsible accountable?” Su said.

Su said she would really love to see the government speak to relevant parties that are working on migrant issues as well as be present on the ground to understand the lived realities.

“Over the years, we’ve seen the government really making an effort in forced labour and trafficking issues but what is equally as important is the priority of ensuring these laws and policies are executed properly too,” she added.

MOHR Minister V. Sivakumar has refused to comment on the matter when contacted by Coconuts.

[voxpeople]

Suella Braverman Plans New Policy to Deter Refugees: Bomb Eritrea

Home secretary Suella Braverman (left) intends to push a radical new policy as part of her aim of net zero migration to the UK. Insiders believe she will push for the destruction of the east African country, annihilating the entire population to prevent them from ever becoming refugees to begin with.

[head-post]

Channel migrant crossings at highest since Labour came to power

More than 10,000 migrants on small boats have arrived in the UK since Labour’s victory in July, official figures show, Daily Mail reports.

On Monday, 65 people on two boats made the perilous journey, bringing the total number of migrants who have arrived in the UK since Labour was elected on July 4 to 10,024 from 178. It comes after a deadly weekend during which eight people died and more than 1,000 made it safely to the UK.

French authorities launched a rescue operation in the early hours of Tuesday morning after passengers became stranded.

Sources confirmed that 20 people were rescued from one boat, while the remaining migrants continue to make their way towards the British coast. French authorities decided not to disembark additional people as it would have posed too great a risk to their safety.

Since the beginning of the year, 23,598 people on 450 boats have successfully made the dangerous journey. In that time, at least 43 people have died in the Channel, including 20 in September alone.

Following the tragic loss of life in the Channel at the weekend, the Home Office has again pledged to “wipe out the gangs.”

A Home Office spokesman said:

We all want to end dangerous small boat crossings, which threaten lives and undermine our border security. As we have seen with so many recent devastating tragedies in the Channel, the people-smuggling gangs do not care if the vulnerable people they exploit live or die, as long as they pay. We will stop at nothing to dismantle their business models and bring them to justice. We are making progress, bolstering our personnel numbers in the UK and abroad. Our new Border Security Command will strengthen our global partnerships and enhance our efforts to investigate, arrest, and prosecute these evil criminals.

Former police chief Martin Hewitt was recently appointed as the new head of the Border Security Command, tasked with reducing small boat migration.

“No more gimmicks”

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said:

No more gimmicks. This government will tackle the smuggling gangs who trade the lives of men, women and children across borders. Martin Hewitt’s unique expertise will lead a new era of international enforcement to dismantle these networks, protect our shores and bring order to the asylum system.

Home Secretary Yvette Cooper announced that £75 million will be used to increase the number of border officers as part of the government’s efforts to crack down on smugglers, using money diverted from a cancelled deportation scheme in Rwanda.

The money will also be used to buy hidden cameras and better monitoring technology as the Home Office sets up a new Border Security Command, headed by a former police chief, to speed up investigations and increase the likelihood of successful prosecutions.

It was also announced earlier this year that an extra 100 specialist investigators would be allocated to the National Crime Agency (NCA) as part of the crackdown on Channel crossings.

Meanwhile, during a visit to Rome, the Prime Minister said he was “very interested” in Italy’s efforts to curb levels of illegal immigration. He added that the government wants to understand the “dramatic reduction” in the number of migrants crossing the Mediterranean to Italy, amid Labour’s efforts to crack down on criminal gangs involved in people smuggling.

Read more HERE

[ivovynckier]

Starmer does Churchill.

"We shall open our island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fold on the beaches, we shall fold on the landing grounds, we shall fold in the fields and in the streets. We shall always surrender."

[creativemedianews]

Starmer in Berlin to 'turn the corner on Brexit'

[agentfascinateur]

The UK Far-right riots, a PSYOP?

The rioting started after far right agitators spread misinformation online, wrongly claiming a Muslim was responsible for the killing of 3 children in a horrific attack on 29 July; he was later identified as a British-born Christian of Rwandan heritage.

When a guy in Cyprus and Musk get involved, it kind of reeks of foreign interference. Mossad? In retaliation for the Labour government and the ICC arrest warrants? Or because of the new ban on weapons exports...🤔?

Tommy Robinson (or Stephen Yaxley-Lennon):

Because while Robinson was declared bankrupt in 2021, he continues to lead a life of luxury. In the past, financial support has come from an opaque network of right-wingers in Canada and the US as well as from online donations and through his work as a 'journalist'.

[easterneyenews]

Sunak and Starmer launch ‘personal attacks’ in final debate

PRIME MINISTER Rishi Sunak and Labour leader Keir Starmer went head-to-head on Wednesday (26) in their last debate before an election next week, with both launching highly personal attacks over their and their parties’ credibility.With Sunak’s Tories trailing Labour by around 20 points in the polls, the prime minister went on the attack, accusing Starmer of not being straight with the country on migration, tax and women’s rights, and urging voters not to “surrender” to the Labour.Starmer responded that Sunak was too rich to understand the concerns of most ordinary Britons. A snap YouGov poll said the debate had been a tie, with both on 50%.

[thozhar]

Gulf migration is not just a major phenomenon in Kerala; north Indian states also see massive migration to the Gulf. Uttar Pradesh and Bihar accounted for the biggest share (30% and 15%) of all Indian workers migrating to GCC1 countries in 2016-17 (Khan 2023)—a trend which continues today. Remittances from the Gulf have brought about significant growth in Bihar’s economy (Khan 2023)—as part of a migrant’s family, I have observed a tangible shift in the quality of life, education, houses, and so on, in Siwan. In Bihar, three districts—Siwan, Gopalganj, and Chapra—send the majority of Gulf migrants from the state, mostly for manual labor (Khan 2023). Bihar also sees internal migration of daily wagers to Delhi, Bombay, and other parts of India. Gulf migration from India’s northern regions, like elsewhere in India, began after the oil boom in the 1970s. Before this time, migration was limited to a few places such as Assam, Calcutta, Bokaro, and Barauni—my own grandfather worked in the Bokaro steel factory.

Despite the role of Gulf migration and internal migration in north Indian regions, we see a representational void in popular culture. Bollywood films on migration largely use rural settings, focussing on people who work in the USA, Europe, or Canada. The narratives centre these migrants’ love for the land and use dialogue such as ‘mitti ki khusbu‘ (fragrance of homeland). Few Bollywood films, like Dor and Silvat, portray internal migration and Gulf migration. While Bollywood films frequently centre diasporic experiences such as Gujaratis in the USA and Punjabis in Canada, they fail in portraying Bihari migrants, be they indentured labourers in the diaspora, daily wagers in Bengal, or Gulf migrants. The regional Bhojpuri film industry fares no better in this regard. ‘A good chunk of the budget is spent on songs since Bhojpuri songs have an even larger viewership that goes beyond the Bhojpuri-speaking public’, notes Ahmed (2022), marking a context where there is little purchase for Gulf migration to be used as a reference to narrate human stories of longing, sacrifice, and family.

One reason for this biased representation of migration is that we see ‘migration’ as a monolith. In academic discourse, too, migration is often depicted as a commonplace phenomenon, but I believe it is crucial to make nuanced distinctions in the usage of the terms ‘migration’ and ‘migrant’. The term ‘migration’ is a broad umbrella term that may oversimplify the diverse experiences within this category. My specific concern is about Gulf migrants, as their migration often occurs under challenging circumstances. For individuals from my region, heading to the Gulf is typically a last resort. This kind of migration leads to many difficulties, especially when it distances migrants from their family for much of their lifetime. The term ‘migration’, therefore, inadequately captures the profound differences between, for instance, migrating to the USA for educational purposes and migrating to the Gulf for labour jobs. Bihar has a rich history of migration, dating back to the era of indentured labor known as girmitiya. Following the abolition of slavery in 1883, colonial powers engaged in the recruitment of laborers for their other colonies through agreements (Jha 2019). Girmitiya distinguishes itself from the migration. People who are going to the Arabian Gulf as blue-collar labourers are also called ‘Gulf migrants’—a term that erases how their conditions are very close to slavery. This is why, as a son who rarely saw his father, I prefer to call myself a ‘victim of migration’ rather than just a ‘part of migration’. It is this sense of victimhood and lack of control over one’s life that I saw missing in Bollywood and Bhojpuri cinema.

— Watching 'Malabari Films' in Bihar: Gulf Migration and Transregional Connections

[totallyhussein-blog]

What's not being said in Britain's debate on the "small boat" crossings

The European Union states; "human trafficking is a highly lucrative business with a lower risk of detection for perpetrators than many other forms of crime. Globally, traffickers make estimated profits of €29.4 billion in a single year."

"The victims have no trust in the support services around them, in the police or in themselves. They think they are not taken seriously and that they are culprits rather than victims", said Merel Van Groningen, a human trafficking survivor.

LET'S EXPLORE THE ISSUES INVOLVED

"Why spend $10,000 USD on getting married, when you can spend it on getting out?" This was the question posed in a Reuters article in 2021.

Reoccurring conflict and the natural desire for a better life, left one Kurdish town in a situation, where people were paying up to $12,000 to get smuggled into Europe.

One Iraqi Kurdish smuggler in Shiladze said he had arranged the trip for about 200 people but a local journalist said it could be as high as 400 people.

TIME FOR A MORE HONEST DEBATE?

In March, a human trafficker spoke direct to Sky News on how people make it to Britain on small boats, claiming "smugglers are just doing business".

"If there are too many migrants, the prices go up"…"from €500 to €2,500" and "if there aren't enough people then the prices drop". "Different nationalities also affect the prices."

According to the interview, "three-quarters of the smugglers are in Britain" and "the money they make, they invest in business there."

[if-you-fan-a-fire]

"RAILROAD TO IMPORT SOUTHERN NEGROES," Toronto World. May 16, 1918. Page 1. ---- St. Thomas, May 15. - Owing to the drastic shortage of firemen on the railroads in St. Thomas, caused by the amendment to the Military Service Act, the Pere Marquette Railroad is making preparations to bring in a large number of southern United States negroes to this city and other divisional points and speedily train them for the duties of firemen. No less than fifty firemen on this line from here have been taken on military duty during the past ten days, and it is impossible to run the road without that help. It is understood provision has been made by the United States authorities and our government to carry out this movement. If the scheme, works out satisfactorily the Michigan Central and Wabash, who are suffering just the same shortage of help, will adopt the plan. It is not known how the brotherhood and other unions will receive this new departure.