Insight and opinion from The National’s editorial leadership
January 23, 2023
It is common for wars to alternate between periods of relative calm and high intensity. This month, it seems as though the war against people smuggling in the Mediterranean is experiencing the latter. A series of unconnected raids and arrests, from Sudan to Bulgaria to the UK, have hit trafficking networks hard.
An operation last week – led by Bulgarian authorities, with support from their Turkish and Serbian counterparts as well as Europol – was a particularly great success. In 624 raids across Europe, police arrested and charged 92 people who are suspected of facilitating the trafficking of hundreds of migrants, often for fees as high as $10,800, from Turkey across the Balkans and into the EU.
On Friday, Tarik Namik, the 45-year-old kingpin of another trafficking network, was arrested in Manchester after arriving on a flight from Istanbul. Namik’s gang allegedly specialises in taking vulnerable migrants across the English Channel, where last year more than 45,000 people illegally crossed from France to the UK in small boats. The UK Home Office estimates that nearly 80 per cent of them were from Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Syria and Albania, suggesting that a majority are likely to have travelled at some point through the trafficking routes in Turkey and the Balkans.
A series of unconnected raids and arrests have hit trafficking networks hard
But Eastern Europe is not the only route through which migrants bound for the western part of the continent travel. East Africans make up a minority of Channel-crossing migrants but are frequent targets for traffickers bound for mainland Europe. Their journey, usually in small boats across the Mediterranean, is equally perilous, and is often orchestrated by ringleaders in North Africa. Early this month, police in Sudan, in partnership with the UAE Ministry of Interior and Interpol, arrested Kidane Zekarias Habtemariam, an Eritrean kingpin who ran a huge smuggling network facilitating journeys between Africa and Europe. His gang, authorities say, kidnapped, extorted, abused and even raped migrants for years. In one instance last year, Kidane’s gang held thousands of refugees and migrants in Libyan warehouses, extorting thousands of dollars from them and their families.
High-profile arrests such as these will undoubtedly boost authorities’ confidence that the momentum is on their side when it comes to busting people-smuggling networks. But they also highlight the scale of the work ahead. Kidane, Namik and others arrested this month are important players, but there remain many more like them across Turkey, the Middle East, North Africa and Europe. Dealing with these individuals will require continued police work, but also more robust policymaking, particularly from European countries, where most of the migrants are headed.
The experience of the British government, which has had a particularly difficult time stemming the flow of illegal arrivals, is a case in point. While police have allocated significant resources to investigating and arresting people smugglers, repeated failures to reach a deal with neighbouring France to co-operate better on sharing police resources and carrying out joint asylum checks has resulted in the number of crossings increasing. In continental Europe and North Africa, police agencies have worked together rather well when necessary, but some politicians still treat the migration crisis like a domestic political football.
January’s law-enforcement successes have demonstrated that a very different attitude is needed. When national authorities see illegal migration for what it is – a transnational issue that requires transnational co-operation – the greater the chances of achieving concrete wins.
Our family matters legal consultant
Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
BUNDESLIGA FIXTURES
Friday (all kick-offs UAE time)
Hertha Berlin v Union Berlin (10.30pm)
Saturday
Freiburg v Werder Bremen (5.30pm)
Paderborn v Hoffenheim (5.30pm)
Wolfsburg v Borussia Dortmund (5.30pm)
Borussia Monchengladbach v Bayer Leverkusen (5.30pm)
Bayern Munich v Eintracht Frankfurt (5.30pm)
Sunday
Schalke v Augsburg (3.30pm)
Mainz v RB Leipzig (5.30pm)
Cologne v Fortuna Dusseldorf (8pm)
The past Palme d'Or winners
2018Shoplifters, Hirokazu Kore-eda
2017The Square, Ruben Ostlund
2016 I, Daniel Blake, Ken Loach
2015 Dheepan, Jacques Audiard
2014 Winter Sleep (Kış Uykusu), Nuri Bilge Ceylan
2013 Blue is the Warmest Colour (La Vie d'Adèle: Chapitres 1 et 2), Abdellatif Kechiche, Adele Exarchopoulos and Lea Seydoux
2012Amour, Michael Haneke
2011 The Tree of Life, Terrence Malick
2010 Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (Lung Bunmi Raluek Chat), Apichatpong Weerasethakul
2009The White Ribbon (Eine deutsche Kindergeschichte), Michael Haneke
2008 The Class (Entre les murs), Laurent Cantet
Red flags
Promises of high, fixed or 'guaranteed' returns.
Unregulated structured products or complex investments often used to bypass traditional safeguards.
Lack of clear information, vague language, no access to audited financials.
Overseas companies targeting investors in other jurisdictions - this can make legal recovery difficult.
Courtesy: Carol Glynn, founder of Conscious Finance Coaching
Sole survivors
Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.
Borussia Dortmund v Schalke (4.30pm)
RB Leipzig v Freiburg (4.30pm)
Hoffenheim v Hertha Berlin (4.30pm)
Fortuna Dusseldorf v Paderborn (4.30pm)
Augsburg v Wolfsburg (4.30pm)
Eintracht Frankfurt v Borussia Monchengladbach (7.30pm)
Sunday, May 17
Cologne v Mainz (4.30pm),
Union Berlin v Bayern Munich (7pm)
Monday, May 18
Werder Bremen v Bayer Leverkusen (9.30pm)
Indoor Cricket World Cup Dubai 2017
Venue Insportz, Dubai; Admission Free
Day 1 fixtures (Saturday)
Men 1.45pm, Malaysia v Australia (Court 1); Singapore v India (Court 2); UAE v New Zealand (Court 3); South Africa v Sri Lanka (Court 4)
Women Noon, New Zealand v South Africa (Court 3); England v UAE (Court 4); 5.15pm, Australia v UAE (Court 3); England v New Zealand (Court 4)
Best Player: Cristiano Ronaldo (Juventus) Best Coach: Gian Piero Gasperini (Atalanta) Best Referee: Gianluca Rocchi Best Goal: Fabio Quagliarella (Sampdoria vs Napoli) Best Team: Atalanta Best XI: Samir Handanovic (Inter); Aleksandar Kolarov (Roma), Giorgio Chiellini (Juventus), Kalidou Koulibaly (Napoli), Joao Cancelo (Juventus*); Miralem Pjanic (Juventus), Josip Ilicic (Atalanta), Nicolo Barella (Cagliari*); Fabio Quagliarella (Sampdoria), Cristiano Ronaldo (Juventus), Duvan Zapata (Atalanta) Serie B Best Young Player: Sandro Tonali (Brescia) Best Women’s Goal: Thaisa (Milan vs Juventus) Best Women’s Player: Manuela Giugliano (Milan) Best Women’s XI: Laura Giuliani (Milan); Alia Guagni (Fiorentina), Sara Gama (Juventus), Cecilia Salvai (Juventus), Elisa Bartoli (Roma); Aurora Galli (Juventus), Manuela Giugliano (Roma), Valentina Cernoia (Juventus); Valentina Giacinti (Milan), Ilaria Mauro (Fiorentina), Barbara Bonansea (Juventus)
Wealth managers recommend late investors to have a balanced portfolio that typically includes traditional assets such as cash, government and corporate bonds, equities, commodities and commercial property.
They do not usually recommend investing in Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies due to the risk and volatility associated with them.
“It has produced eye-watering returns for some, whereas others have lost substantially as this has all depended purely on timing and when the buy-in was. If someone still has about 20 to 25 years until retirement, there isn’t any need to take such risks,” Rupert Connor of Abacus Financial Consultant says.
He adds that if a person is interested in owning a business or growing a property portfolio to increase their retirement income, this can be encouraged provided they keep in mind the overall risk profile of these assets.
