Few smugglers remain outside the system. The days when we cut our own deals with passengers is over. Often waiting in the destination country are representatives of the origin country boss, who will detain the migrants until relatives pay the outstanding debt. Alternatively, the migrants might be put to work in sweatshops or as prostitutes. By such segmentation, specialisation and flexibility has human trafficking become the world's fastest growing criminal business.
Employees know little, if anything, about their ultimate bosses.
Identifying them, gathering evidence and obtaining convictions is a herculean task. Last year more than 50,000 are estimated to have passed through on the way to western Europe. Three overland routes snake into Italy and Austria via Croatia, Slovenia and Hungary. Suffocations in trucks and drownings in the Sava river are common. Others board semi-inflatables for moonlit crossings of the Adriatic from Vlore or Split.