On irregular migration from Eritrea, human smuggling and ‘criminal networks’, CIROC Newsletter

The increased government, media and public focus on migration from Africa to the EU in the past few years has led to an explosion in reporting on the phenomenon. Within this context, there are a number of basic as‐sumptions in relation to these migratory processes from Africa: (1) mi‐grants from Africa intend to cross the Mediterranean Sea in an effort to reach Western European countries; (2) in their effort to cross the Mediter‐ranean, African migrants are facilitated by ‘organised criminal networks’ that exploit the migrants’ vulnerability (see EU, 201