Why Has West Africa Become a Nexus for the International Traffickers?


Book Description

This book is undoubtedly rich in different diverse sources and literature that are put together into a coherent whole instead of dispersed copious literature on the genesis of West African countries' integration into the world political economy and geopolitics of the drug trade. To the author's best knowledge, there is no similar book that has focused on the recent West Africa drug connection. The book is well-researched and documented. It fills the missing void in the discourse of West Africa drug trade arrangements. This book is one of its kind in the annals of West Africa's drug trade history. This thrust and the thesis of the book is to provide a plausible and sufficient explanation as to why West Africa has become international traffickers' transshipments and transits hubs and cocaine distribution and repackage centers for cocaine en route to Europe. This book is informative for a wide variety of readers such as students, social analysts from different social sciences disciplines, drug policy makers in West African countries, and elsewhere in the world. The book's subject matter is a global-wide problem that concerns all modern human societies worldwide. There are no human societies that are immune to the dynamics of the global drug trade industries that pose threat to human, national, and global security in its wake.




Global Report on Trafficking in Persons 2020


Book Description

The 2020 UNODC Global Report on Trafficking in Persons is the fifth of its kind mandated by the General Assembly through the 2010 United Nations Global Plan of Action to Combat Trafficking in Persons. It covers more than 130 countries and provides an overview of patterns and flows of trafficking in persons at global, regional and national levels, based primarily on trafficking cases detected between 2017 and 2019. As UNODC has been systematically collecting data on trafficking in persons for more than a decade, trend information is presented for a broad range of indicators.




Human Trafficking in Africa


Book Description

This edited volume examines the contemporary practice of human trafficking on the African continent. It investigates the scourge of human trafficking in Africa from the broader international and regional perspectives as well as from a country-specific context. Written by a multi-disciplinary panel of academics and practitioners, the book is divided into three sections that highlight a wide range of issues. Section One examines the theoretical and legal challenges of trafficking. Section Two focuses on the regional and nation-state perspectives of human trafficking along with selected cases of trafficking. Section Three highlights the impact of trafficking on youth, with specific attention given to child soldiering and female victims of trafficking. Providing a multi-faceted approach to a problem that crosses multiple disciplines, this volume will be useful to scholars and students interested in African politics, African studies, migration, human rights, sociology, law, and economics as well as members of the diplomatic corps, governmental, intergovernmental, and non-governmental organizations.




Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking


Book Description

This edited volume, Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking, is a collection of reviewed and relevant research chapters, offering a comprehensive overview of recent developments in the field of modern slavery and human trafficking. The book comprises single chapters authored by various researchers and edited by an expert active in the aforementioned research area. Each chapter is complete in itself but united under a common research study topic. This publication aims at providing a thorough overview of the latest research efforts by international authors on modern slavery and human trafficking, and opening new possible research paths for further novel developments.




The Terrorist-Criminal Nexus


Book Description

Postmodern global terrorist groups engage sovereign nations asymmetrically with prolonged, sustained campaigns driven by ideology. Increasingly, transnational criminal organizations operate with sophistication previously only found in multinational corporations. Unfortunately, both of these entities can now effectively hide and morph, keeping law e




Transnational Organized Crime in East Asia and the Pacific


Book Description

Human trafficking and smuggling of migrants: Four of the 12 illicit flows reviewed in this report involve human beings. The first two concern movement between the countries of the region, one for general labour and one for sexual exploitation. The third concerns the smuggling of migrants from the region to the rich countries of the West, and the last focuses on migrants smuggled through the region from the poor and conflicted countries of South and Southwest Asia. Drug trafficking: The production and use of opiates has a long history in the region, but the main opiate problem in the 21st century involves the more refined form of the drug: heroin. In addition, methamphetamine has been a threat in parts of East Asia for decades (in the form of yaba tablets), but crystal methamphetamine has recently grown greatly in popularity. Virtually every country in the region has some crystal methamphetamine users, and some populations consume at very high levels.Resources: Resource-related crimes include those related to both extractive industries, such as the illegal harvesting of wildlife and timber, and other crimes that have a negative impact on the environment, such as the dumping of e-waste and the trade in ozone-depleting substances. In all cases, the threat goes beyond borders, jeopardizing the global environmental heritage. These are therefore crimes of inherent international significance, though they are frequently dealt with lightly under local legislation.Counterfeit goods: The trade in counterfeit goods is often perceived as a "soft" form of crime, but can have dangerous consequences for public health and safety. Fraudulent medicines in particular pose a threat to public health, and their use can foster the growth of treatment resistant pathogens.




West African Studies Global Security Risks and West Africa Development Challenges


Book Description

This publication explores current global security issues, their development in West Africa and their potential impact on regional stability. It takes a close look at issues such as terrorism and trafficking, climate change, and the links between security and development.




The Globalization of Crime


Book Description

In The globalization of crime: a transnational organized crime threat assessment, UNODC analyses a range of key transnational crime threats, including human trafficking, migrant smuggling, the illicit heroin and cocaine trades, cybercrime, maritime piracy and trafficking in environmental resources, firearms and counterfeit goods. The report also examines a number of cases where transnational organized crime and instability amplify each other to create vicious circles in which countries or even subregions may become locked. Thus, the report offers a striking view of the global dimensions of organized crime today.




Illicit Trafficking and Libya's Transition


Book Description

As Libya emerges from forty years of autocratic rule, the criminal economy is undermining government efforts at state consolidation. This report maps the flow of weapons, migrants, drugs, and smuggled goods through Libya and details the interactions between armed groups who control illicit markets and local communities. The authors warn that efforts to beef up border control policing will not be sufficient. Combating organized crime in Libya requires a broader approach that will engage marginalized groups in a political process. Failure to do so will affect not only Libya but the region as well.




Transatlantic Security from the Sahel to the Horn of Africa


Book Description

As the so-called Arab Spring has slid into political uncertainty, lingering insecurity and civil conflict, European and American initial enthusiasm for anti-authoritarian protests has given way to growing concerns that revolutionary turmoil in North Africa may in fact have exposed the West to new risks. Critical in cementing this conviction has been the realisation that developments originated from Arab Mediterranean countries and spread to the Sahel have now such a potential to affect Western security and interests as to warrant even military intervention, as France’s operation in Mali attests. EU and US involvement in fighting piracy off the Horn of Africa had already laid bare the nexus between their security interests and protracted crises in sub-Saharan Africa. But the new centrality acquired by the Sahel after the Arab uprisings – particularly after Libya’s civil war – has elevated this nexus to a new, larger dimension. The centre of gravity of Europe’s security may be swinging to Africa, encompassing a wide portion of the continental landmass extending south of Mediterranean coastal states. The recrudescence of the terrorist threat from Mali to Algeria might pave the way to an American pivot to Africa, thus requiring fresh thinking on how the European Union and the United States can better collaborate with each other and with relevant regional actors.