About
880,000 people in the EU are living in slavery, according to the October
figures from the European Parliament’s Organized Crime, Corruption and Money
Laundering Committee (CRIM). These include children who are forced to beg, men
who are forced to work for pitifully low or no wages, and women who are forced
to work as prostitutes.
CRIM
has urged the EU member states to eradicate trafficking in human beings.
Considering that it’s estimated that organised crime nets around 25billion
euros each year, crime lords are not going to give up their hold on their luckless
human assets.
The
aim to eradicate this modern form of slavery is not going to be easy, since
there are thousands of corruption cases registered in the public sector of the
EU. There’s no telling what the actual damage this causes, either, but it must
be considerable. Forlorn hope, but if organised crime could be radically
reduced, imagine how improved living standards would be!)
There
are relatively new crimes being organised today, too. A booming trade in human
organs and wildlife and the rapid spread of cyber-crime take their toll.
In
Europe, there a total of 3,600 international criminal organisations operating
across the EU, according to the report. This is one reason why the British SOCA
(and parts of the Border Agency, and the Child Exploitation and Online
Protection Centre, as well) have been replaced by the NCA (National Crime
Agency) to tackle the 40,000 individuals in 5,500 criminal gangs in UK; the NCA
will have a big presence abroad, too, with 130 officers in excess of forty
countries.
CRIM
recommends the abolition of European tax havens and increased prison time for
thos caught and convicted of money laundering or corruption. To help in the
fight against corruption, the committee calls for further legal protection for
whistle-blowers within the EU.
Excerpt from Blood
of the Dragon Trees
The week was a long ordeal of starvation rations, hard
labour and a few minor beatings, but Jalbala stoically accepted his lot. His
body ached in every muscle, mainly from work, but he was determined to fit in.
Including him, there were
twenty-two in the new group, so Mustapha had been accurate on that point, too.
It seemed that the rest of the group hadn’t noticed the switch. They were
probably – and understandably – wrapped up in their own fate at the time.
Some
days he was put to work in a field, picking melons. The open air was
preferable, but the sun quickly sapped his strength and gave him a pounding
headache, the first signs of dehydration. In the fields, Jalbala got to know
the woman he’d pulled out of the water. Her name was Nadira. She was
twenty-four and had left her two young boys with her parents. Her husband had
been killed and she wanted to fend for herself. ‘Europe is where I will make
money and bring my children up,’ she told Jalbala with conviction.
Other days, he worked under
immense sheets of plastic. Within these greenhouses, he found it difficult to
breathe in the very humid 140oF. Light and heat seemed to radiate
from every surface. The days melded into an amorphous mass of time within
Jalbala’s surreal world, where the sky was white, suspended by arched wooden
ribs, just inches above his head.
Toiling in the suffocating
greenhouses, Jalbala made friends with one of the men who’d been landed from
the ship. Talking made them even more breathless, but Jalbala needed
information and Jope was glad to pass the time while doing monotonous work.
Jope spoke French. He was
Senegalese, with a wife and a five-year-old daughter. He’d been an electrician,
earning £25 a month.
‘Why
talk in British pounds?’ Jalbala queried. ‘Your currency is francs, isn’t it?’
Jope
shrugged. ‘I don’t know why, but they preferred discredited pounds, rather than
our francs or euros.’
He
went on. He’d been enticed by a friend who said that in the Canaries he could
earn at least £1,000 a month. ‘I decided to improve my family’s lot. I spoke to
my wife and we agreed. I took our family savings and went to the coast.’ He
eventually caught a ship sailing from Dajla in Mauritania. ‘I want a house and
I want to educate my children,’ he told Jalbala. ‘The journey cost £800. I
worked for three months to add the wages to our savings.’
Jalbala
felt for the man. The money that ruled – and ruined – Jope’s life was peanuts
to the majority of people in the UK or the States. Everything was relative, he
supposed. Both the States and the UK were still hurting from the credit crunch
and massive borrowing. Yet he’d seen in England that large sections of the
workforce were still intent on striking for higher wages. What planet were they
on?
‘Why
do you ask so many questions?’ Jope said.
Really
good question, Jalbala thought. ‘I’m a reporter. I want to expose the people
who put you through this.’ He only wished that was true; maybe some aspects of
it could be.
Somewhere
near, guard dogs barked and Jalbala knew that not far from their side strode
sadistic men with pickaxe handles and baseball bats. (p84)
BLOOD
OF THE DRAGON TREES
Laura
Reid likes her new job on Tenerife, teaching the Spanish twins Maria and
Ricardo Chávez. She certainly doesn’t want to get involved with Andrew Kirby
and his pal, Jalbala Emcheta, who work for CITES, tracking down illegal traders
in endangered species. Yet she’s undeniably drawn to Andrew, which is
complicated, as she’s also attracted to Felipe, the brother of her widower
host, Don Alonso.
Felipe’s girlfriend Lola is jealous
and Laura is forced to take sides – risking her own life – as she and Andrew
uncover the criminal network that not only deals in the products from
endangered species, but also thrives on people trafficking. The pair are aided
by two Spanish lawmen, Lieutenant Vargas of the Guardia Civil and Ruben
Salazar, Inspector Jefe del Grupo de Homicidios de las Canarias.
Very soon betrayal and mortal danger
lurk in the shadows, along with the dark deeds of kidnapping and clandestine
scuba diving…
Note.
The film The Whistleblower (2010) is
a searing indictment of institutionalised corruption that condones people
trafficking, with a superb performance from Rachel Weisz. This film is at times
brutal, uncomfortable viewing and not for the faint-hearted. It’s based on
actual events.
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