Page 145 - Conflitti Militari e Popolazioni Civili - Tomo II

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humanitarian effect: smuggLing and human trafficking
Due to the lack maritime security, smuggling in the region blossomed and illicit cargoes
can include weapons, people and contraband. The UN Monitoring Group has found that
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despite the arms embargo, a “continuous flow of arms into, within and out of Somalia” ex-
ists which is detrimental to regional stability. Arms are mostly smuggled by sea and by road,
and it is lucrative business for those involved. The lack of control has caused an extensive
35
network of arms markets to arise in Somalia and all the countries of the region are either
involved or their nationals participate in the smuggling. This therefore affects the whole
region, which emphasises the need for regional and international action.
The UN Independent Expert on Human Rights in Somalia (UNIE) and humanitarian or-
ganisations has reported that human trafficking is rampant in Somalia. Though it is forbidden
in accordance with Shari’a and customary law, no unified policing to interdict such practices
and no authoritative legal system to prosecute traffickers existed. It is exactly this chaotic
internal situation that has kept the full extend of it hidden. According to reports, militia forces
are engaged in trafficking of women and children for sexual exploitation and forced labour,
some go to the Middle East and Europe for forced labour or sexual exploitation, while child
victims were reportedly also transported to Southern Africa for sexual exploitation. 36
Many Somali refugees and much of the human traffic cross the sea from Boosaaso (a
bussy smuggling hub in north-east Somalia) to Yemen. Horrific stories of bodies floating
around, people drowning after being forced at gunpoint to jump overboard by smugglers, or
just being shot out of hand, abounds. In May 2006 the UN High Commissioner for Refugees
reported that boats arriving in Yemen from Boosaaso amounted to around 30 a month, with
hundreds, if not thousand of deaths. 37

Economic implications
The fact that the sea, its resources and the rich trade routes is historically important to the
Horn of Africa region makes the economic impact of the maritime security problems self-
evident. In most spheres of economic activity, Somalia is loosing wealth and income. Within
the maritime environment this specifically impacts on the fishing industry, trade, import and
export, as well as lost revenues, duties and taxes linked to harbours. Other countries are also
losers as there is not a country in the region that does not claim vast damage to their marine
resources as a result of illegal fishing. This can even amount to as much as more than a billion
US Dollars per year as a result of illegal fishing, reef destruction and the depletion of many

34 ‘Piracy and Maritime Crime (Horn of Africa)’, UKMTO Dubai Briefing, UK Maritime Trade Operations, 21
September 2006.
35 Report of the Monitoring Group on Somalia pursuant to resolution 1519 (2003), UN Security Council,
S/2004.604, 11 August 2004, p.13.
36 ‘Country Reports on Human Rights Practices – Somalia’, US Department of State, 8 March 2006, in http://
www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2005/61592.htm. See also UNiCeF, Analysis of the Situation of Sexual Ex-
nd
ploitation of Children in the Eastern and Southern African Region, 2 World Congress against Commercial
Exploitation of Children.
37 ‘Human trafficking: Greed and the trail of death’, The Independent, 25 May 2006.