The radio program Kaliber at Swedish radio has made a story on the illegal transportation of refugees from the Middle East. They give a picture of an international criminality of the worst sort.
About seventy Iraqis per day come to Sweden in an illegal way. They have often sold all their possessions in order to buy tickets from ruthless criminal syndicates. Many times it does not bring them any closer to their dream. Either they are caught on the way or ripped off by the criminal syndicate. Kaliber has talked to people who have crossed a border and been promised that a truck will meet them there, which never happened.
Birbwires are keeping the Iraqis out from Europe, forcing many to hire criminal organsiations to get way
Many Iraqis live in Damascus in neighbouring Syria, that border has so far been easy to cross. But their situation there have turned worse for them at the same time as most other countries have closed their borders for Iraqis. Sweden is by now one of the very few countries where Iraqis have a chance of getting asylum. Many have relatives here. Altogether it has been estimated, there are 100 000 Iraqis in Sweden.
The syndicates takes about 12 000 to 15 000 SEK (about 2 000 to 2 400 USD) per person to smuggle them to the so-called Schengen-area. Sometimes a league is busted but they are only sentenced to very short periods in prison, too short to discourage them from their business considering the huge amount of money on stake. When one gang is busted there are also new ones prepared to take over, often the same organisations that conduct drug businesses and other serious criminality.