PUAN accepted, pre proof for elements.pdf (1.16 MB)
Human smuggling from Wollo, Ethiopia to Saudi Arabia: Askoblay criminals or enablers of dreams?
journal contribution
posted on 2023-06-09, 22:33 authored by Fekadu Adugna, Priya DeshingkarPriya Deshingkar, Adamnesh AtnafuSensationalist accounts of human smuggling from Ethiopia towards Saudi Arabia allege that operations are controlled by criminal networks who converge in a variety of illegal markets posing a threat to national security. Such convergence narratives construct Ethiopian human smuggling as an organized criminal business that extracts profits from and inflicts violence on vulnerable people seeking a clandestine passage to work in the Gulf States. Our ethnographic research in Wollo, Ethiopia, challenges these narratives by showing that smuggling networks are developed through personalised relationships, based on co-ethnic bonds rather than extended and complex criminal networks. Smuggling has emerged in a particular context of surveillance and enforcement and the motives of smugglers are complex, making simple characterisations difficult. Smuggling is enabled by ethnic links on either side of the border where earnings from facilitation boost incomes in an otherwise impoverished context.
Funding
Migrating out of Poverty Research Programme Consortium; G2194; DFID-DEPARTMENT FOR INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT; PO4913
History
Publication status
- Published
File Version
- Accepted version
Journal
Public AnthropologistISSN
2589-1715Publisher
BrillExternal DOI
Issue
1Volume
3Page range
32-55Department affiliated with
- Geography Publications
Full text available
- Yes
Peer reviewed?
- Yes
Legacy Posted Date
2021-01-04First Open Access (FOA) Date
2021-03-08First Compliant Deposit (FCD) Date
2020-12-18Usage metrics
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