Migrant Smugglers and ICT in Greece

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MASTER’S THESIS LEIDEN UNIVERSITY FACULTY OF GOVERNANCE AND GLOBAL AFFAIRS CRISIS AND SECURITY MANAGEMENT 2017-2018 NAME: SOFIA KYRAMPALIDOU STUDENT NR.: S2027984 DATE: JUNE 2018 SUPERVISOR: Dr. DE BUSSER SECOND READER: Dr. LIEM COURSE INSTRUCTOR: Dr. MATTHYS

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The roots of organized crime can be traced back to late Antiquity when the existing power vacuums were exploited by criminal groups whose aim was to survive and make profit out of the existing circumstances (Hopwood, 2009). These vacuums are still being utilized by criminals who wish to enhance their profits and expand their illegal activities even further. Although they have taken multiple forms during history, from piracy (Tilly, 2012) to modern day corporate crime (Ruggiero, 1997), their aim remains the same and they are still considered as one of the main threats to global security (UNODC, 2018). Moreover, organized criminal groups’ (OCGs) well-organized, fluid, secretive nature (Edwards & Gill, 2003) makes it difficult for officials to track their every activity, incommoding their efforts to trace every possible connection and probable next targets.

This difficulty authorities face is amplified by these groups’ attempt to expand their activities to other fields by choosing alternative ways to enhance their capabilities and avoid criminal justice (Lavorgna, 2015; Bequai, 2001). The usage of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) seem to be one of them, creating this way a link between offline and online organized crime (EUROPOL, 2011). These groups prefer to act in a lower-risk environment such as cyberspace1 to either facilitate their current

1_{According to the European Union Agency for Network and Information Security (ENISA), cyberspace} is “the time-dependent set of tangible and intangible assets, which store and/or transfer

electronic information” (ENISA, 2017a).

ABSTRACT

Organized crime is a criminal field that troubles the majority of the European countries. Greece, specifically, has to deal with organized criminal groups (OCGs) that have taken advantage of the Migration Crisis that outburst in 2015 and make profit out of smuggling migrants into the country. These migrant smugglers appear to be evolving their “businesses”, as they expand their activities through the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) by either recruiting more people online or by providing high quality forged documents to the smuggled migrants.

This paper will attempt to provide a contextual insight on the matter by showing the prevailing situation in Greece and will examine to what extent can the Routine Activity Theory explain this phenomenon.

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activities in the physical world or to completely provide their “services” through it (Choo, 2008).

This paper focuses on how these criminal actions are being met in Greece’s society. Due to its geographical location, Greece has been in the center of a plethora of organized illegal activities. According to the Hellenic Police Report on Serious and Organized Crime (2016), migrant smuggling is the most common form of organized crime in Greece since 2015. Usually, migrant smugglers are also associated with both fraud and forgery. In more detail, they appear to lure their targets (migrants) via fraudulent means – such as false advertising in social media and they keep in touch with them through instant messaging applications (Kingsley, 2015a). In addition, they provide migrants with either forged or counterfeited documents in order to grant them a new identity (EMSC, 2017) with which they will proceed to build their new life abroad.

The same report (Hellenic Police, 2017) states that most of the actions OCGs tend to opt for are (at least) complemented by some online or technology-related action that enables criminals to enhance their abilities. A characteristic example of a technologically related action is the communication with the migrants or with other criminals via applications such as WhatsApp or Facebook (Schlanger, 2017). In addition, Europol’s Migrant Smuggling Report states that more than 90% of the migrants travelling to the European Union used transportation and facilitation services provided by OCGs who made contact with the migrants via ICT (EUROPOL, 2016). Since the academic literature on Greece is relatively sparse, the goal of this paper would be to give a contextualized insight on how migrant smuggling OCGs have used ICT to promote their physical actions (e.g. via Facebook advertising) during the years 2015-2017, when the European Migrant Crisis reached its peak. Moreover, it will examine whether this phenomenon can be explained by the Routine Activity Theory (Cohen & Felson, 1979), that is going to be further discussed in the next part. As a consequence, the main research question of this paper is the following:

“To what extent have organized migrant smuggling groups facilitated their actions through the use of ICT? – a test to the Routine Activity Theory.”

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Many scholars attempted to address the link between organized cyber criminal groups (OCCGs) that only act via ICT (such as money mules) (“Money Muling”, 2018) and traditional criminal groups that normally act on the terrestrial world but choose to facilitate some part of their actions via cyberspace. There is still, though, a blur around whether cyber criminal groups are a differentiation of OCGs or an evolution of them (McCusker, 2007). Consequently, one of the main sub-questions of this paper is if OCGs like migrant smuggling groups have the ability to turn to OCCGs and act exclusively through ICT.

Two more of the sub-questions that are going to be answered in this paper refer to what are the main means of action migrant smugglers opt for and how they have used ICT to their advantage. In this manner, it would be possible to provide the reader with an insight on how these groups act in Greece and show the possible link between these two forms of criminality, filling the gap in the current academic literature on this matter. Therefore, this paper may prove of value to Greek decision- and policy-makers that wish to battle both of these issues society is currently facing; or even to other scholars that are currently researching this link in other European countries at the moment. Apart from its academic relevance, the answer to this research question may also prove socially relevant, too. Migrant smuggling has been one of the top issues troubling both the Greek government and the European bodies since the outburst of the European Migrant Crisis in 2015; therefore, it would be very useful to pinpoint the mechanisms that enhance the problem in order to successfully battle them and consequently mitigate the issue that has arisen. In addition, the notions of “cyberspace” and “cybersecurity” are not very well integrated into Greek society. Greek citizens are not familiar with these terms and Greek policy-makers – in cooperation with the European Union (EU) – have just recently published the country’s Cybersecurity Strategic Plan (ENISA, 2017b), which has not been put in full force for a long period of time. Conclusively, a clearer and more concrete outlook on the matter could help Greek officials to better comprehend the problem in order to adopt the necessary measures for its countering. The first part of this paper will start with a literature review and a conceptualization of all the referred terms and theories in order to provide the reader with all the fundamental information they need to form a coherent understanding of the matter. The following part will be dedicated to analyzing the methodology used for this paper which has to do

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with matters such as the research procedure that was followed; the chosen research design; the choice of the selected data; how they were analyzed; as well as the limitations this paper faces due to its nature. The next part will further proceed into the analysis of the collected data and the findings of the research. By taking the results of the research into account, the part that follows will focus on providing an answer to whether the choices of migrant smugglers in Greece can be explained by the Routine Activity Theory (Cohen & Felson, 1979). Finally, all the above will result in a conclusion where the main research question is going to be answered by wrapping up the findings of the research.

2. BODY OF KNOWLEDGE

2.1. Conceptualization - Definitions

Before diving into the literature review that is going to draw a spherical and an in-depth image of the situation, it is crucial to provide the reader with some key definitions of the terms and the concepts that are going to be used in the forthcoming analysis. To begin with, the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime (United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, 2004, pg.5) suggested a definition of the organized criminal groups which was also adopted by EUROPOL’s threat assessment on Serious and Organized crime (2017b, pg. 13). According to this definition, an OCG is “a group of three or more persons existing over a period of time acting in concert with the aim of committing crimes for financial or material benefit.”.

The European Union’s Council Framework Decision 2008/841/JHA (2008) on the fight against organized crime enriched this definition by adding some more specific details, defining an organized criminal organization as “a structured association, established over a period of time, of more than two persons acting in concert with a view to committing offences which are punishable by deprivation of liberty or a detention order of a maximum of at least four years or a more serious penalty, to obtain, directly or indirectly, a financial or other material benefit;”. This definition applies to both OCCGs that are active solely via ICT and the ones who only facilitate part of their action through new technologies.

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As long as migrant smuggling is concerned, the Smuggling of Migrants Protocol defines the smuggling of migrants as the “procurement, in order to obtain, directly or indirectly, a financial or other material benefit, of the illegal entry of a person into a State Party of which the person is not a national or a permanent resident.” (United Nations on Drugs and Crime, 2004, pg. 54-55). Explicitly, a migrant smuggler is someone who imports an individual into a foreign country after a particular deal has been reached between his “client” and himself in order to ensure the smuggler’s financial or material compensation.

Moving on to the second aspect of this research, the official EU website of Migration and Home Affairs states that the term cybercrime is the type of crime which consists of criminal acts that are committed online by using electronic communication networks and information systems ("Cybercrime - Migration and Home Affairs - European Commission", 2018). These communications networks and information systems are handled by technical means, such as computer and network hardware/software, which constitute the ICTs ("Glossary: Information and communication technology (ICT) - Statistics Explained", 2016).

As these key definitions have been given to the reader, an academic literature review will follow which will dive more in depth in the existing academic discourse on the matter.

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New technologies may provide a potential criminal with a variety of tools that could enable him to take the maximum advantage of both cyberspace and ICT. The use of these technologies provides cybercriminals with several advantages such as access to a plethora of information; anonymity; avoidance of prosecution due to the absence of strict and concrete legislation; fast-paced transactions; easier communication and the attainment of mass crimes against multiple individuals regardless of the existing borders (Bequai, 2001; Papanikolaou et al., 2004). In this manner, new technologies may create new forms of crime – such as cyber-stalking and cyber money laundering - or they can enable the procedure of committing already existing crimes in new ways – such as higher quality counterfeited documents or fraud (Nuth, 2008).

According to Bequai (2001), OCGs acknowledged the opportunities cyberspace and ICT had to offer at a very early stage, explaining why they were able to completely adapt to this new era and convert themselves into a major threat to the authorities - keeping at the same time a very low profile. All of the above contributed to their evolution into an actor who is now able and capable to enhance and promote their activities a bit further in a transnational manner (United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, 2016; Council of Europe, 2001) in an attempt to achieve one of their main aims which is profit. This profit is easily attainable by a rather paradox type of commerce that mainly consists of trading illicit products such as arms, drugs or – in the context of this paper – people, and more specifically migrants.

Choo (2008) agrees with Bequai and states that OCGs have found a safe haven in cyberspace where they can advertise their “services”, distribute their products and enhance the chances of not getting caught at the same time. This is not the case in the terrestrial world where officials have both the means and the authority to take action against a criminality that is taking place in their territory and to dispense the befitting law in case of prosecution. According to Williams (2001) this is one of the main reasons why cybercrime and organized crime cannot be seen as synonymous no matter how much they may overlap one another. This overlap has created a confusion expressed by McCusker (2007) who claims that there is no clear distinction between whether cybercrime is a completely different form of organized criminality or simply an updated version of it.

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Kleemans (2007) and Lavorgna (2015) seem to set this confusion aside and focus more on the aspect that OCGs that belong to either of these categories seem to operate in a similar manner following a business model which is driven by opportunistic goals. Acting as a typical business organization, Lavorgna (2015) claims that OCGs had to take advantage of the opportunities cyberspace had to offer. Taking human trafficking as an example, criminal groups take advantage of communication opportunities to make contact with the possible victim (cyber OCGs); managerial opportunities to adjust and meet the changes in the demand of trafficking activity (traditional OCGs); organizational opportunities to facilitate their business-like organization (both OCGs); relational opportunities to build new ties with other networks (both OCGs); promotional opportunities to advertise goods and services (cyber OCGs) and deceptive opportunities to make use of cyberspace’s anonymity and deceive potential victims (both OCGs).

In conclusion, whether criminals belong to traditional OCGs that wish to enhance their illegal activities or new-age OCCGs that evolved into acting solely through ICT, they all aim at one goal: conducting fruitful commerce in order to ensure more profit. In this specific case, the commerce conducted has to do with people (i.e. migrants), services (i.e. transportation to the foreign country) and products (i.e. forged documents). Migrants make frequent use of ICT such as personal computers or smartphones in order to communicate with peers and form either formal or informal networks in which they feel included in a part of a community (Oiarzabal & Reips, 2012). This usage has been noticed by migrant smugglers and provided them with an incentive to expand their actions in cyberspace in order to have access to a wider group of possible “clients”. Having all the above in mind alongside the theories that are going to be analyzed in the following part, the reader may get a grasp of how these groups operate so that he/she will be able to implement these thoughts into Greece’s case study analysis.

2.3. Theories

This paper will attempt to examine to what extent can the Routine Activity Theory (RAT) by Cohen and Felson (1979) explain the choice of OCGs – and migrant smugglers in particular - to facilitate their actions via ICT in Greece. In order to fully understand how these groups work and to keep a focused analysis throughout this paper,

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the Business Model of Cybercrime by Tropina (2016) will be used in a complementary manner in order to clarify if this turn to the new technologies by migrant smugglers was inevitable in the process of them leaning towards a more typical business-like approach. These theories can explain the organization and the operation of both traditional organized groups that are partly using ICT as an enhancement of their activities and the groups that are leaning more towards a cyber manner of operation. During the analysis, two more theories are going to be mentioned in order to reason some contradicting views. These theories are Kohlberg’s Moral Development Theory (1971) and the “Ideal Victim” theory by Nils Christie (1986), both of which are going to be further explained in the corresponding part of the analysis.

Routine activity approaches claim that the actors (here, the offenders) are free to choose their actions bearing in mind the anticipatory rewards they can expect from their choices (Yar, 2005). RAT suggests that in order for a criminality to take place, three factors must be met: (i) the existence of a motivated offender, (ii) a suitable target and (iii) the absence of a capable guardian that has the ability to prevent a violation from taking place (Cohen & Felson, 1979). Adjusting the theory to this paper’s point of view, one may claim that all types of criminals – organized or not – can be described as potential motivated offenders. It is not even remotely important whether they engage into criminality in the terrestrial world or in cyberspace as the essence remains the same: a crime is committed that aims at the maximization of the offender’s profits.

The existence of an attractive target is the second factor of RAT and it usually refers to an individual or a group of individuals who can be described as suitable. According to Hough (1987) the attractiveness, the vulnerability, the exposure and the accessibility of a target are of great importance in the choice of a possible victim. Taking a migrant as an example, one may say that they meet all of these requirements. Migrants are an attractive target group due to the fact they are willing to offer a monetary reward to the smuggler in order to ensure their transportation and documentation. They are easy to

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find and approach (accessibility) due to their desperate need to get in touch with anyone that may be able to assist them in this procedure, which makes them highly exposed to danger (exposure). These conditions seem to equally apply to both the physical and the cyber world, as migrant smugglers appear to use the latter even more frequently in order to recruit and keep in touch with their targets.

The third factor of the RAT that completes the “crime triangle” (Kleemans, Soudijn, Weenink, 2012) is the absence of a guardian who will be able to prevent the illegal activity from taking place. Taking as a given the fact that migrant smuggling takes place transnationally and not within the borders of a single state, legislations may differ from country to country. Some legislations provide more protection towards the victims of such procedures while others appear to have multiple legal vacuums which prove to be of great benefit to the facilitation of the criminal activities of smugglers. In the same manner, some legislations establish more “guardians” in order to prevent a criminality from taking place and some find difficulties to do so, either due to the lack of finances or personnel.

In general, states that are “weak” and provide a plethora of corruption opportunities seem to have a substantial gap in legislation and consequently, they encounter difficulties in successfully battling the problem (Trembley, Bouchard & Petit, 2009). On the other hand, some states make corruption opportunities scarce and costly through the adoption of proper and efficient legislation (Trembley, Bouchard & Petit, 2009) providing anti-motives for such actions.

According to Koops (2012) the same applies to cyberspace as well. Given its borderless nature and the novelty of its existence it is extremely difficult to establish commonly accepted and adequate law for the elimination of crimes taking place in its digital territory. There are still many countries that have not yet penalized certain forms of cybercrime making it difficult for authorities to prosecute the offenders. In addition, the fact that evidence can be easily destroyed and identities can be hidden serves as an aggravation of the situation and makes investigations in cyberspace extremely difficult to be successfully conducted (Koops, 2012).

It is commonly accepted that the criminal use of ICT and cyberspace is becoming more organized and large-scale and it is building ties with offline organized crime (Koops, 2012). In compliance with all the above and in a complementary manner, this paper

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views the facilitation of migrant smugglers’ activities in new technologies through the lens of Tropina’s (2015) Business Model of Cybercrime which explains why these groups are converted into the pre-mentioned motivated offenders. The main reason behind this is the goal of profit maximization. Acting as a typical business, they aim at survival, maximum profit, growth and thus minimum cost, leaving aside the aspect of social responsibility (Friedman, 1970) that would have constrained them for engaging in such actions.

Legitimate digital markets have experienced impressive success and an astonishing economic development in recent years. It would not have been long before criminal groups noticed this expansion and incorporated this way of operation into their organizations. In order to do so, OCGs are mimicking business models from legitimate businesses by hiring people – or in this case crackers2 – in order to help them enhance their capabilities in fields that they are far from their expertise and by dividing the labor among “employees”. They have also adopted their commercialization and their sophistication. The latter can be seen through the fact that the cybercrime “industry” have matured so much that it proceeds to technologically and professionally advanced criminal actions. A successful example of this would have to be the evolution of phishing from a petty fraudulent activity to the greatest threat of identity and personal data theft. (Tropina, 2015).

At this point, a spherical image of the situation has been drawn and the reader has been provided with some basic tools in order to fully comprehend the analysis that will follow on the OCGs of migrant smuggling in Greece and to what extent they follow the pre-mentioned measures to facilitate their action through ICT. The next two parts explain how the analysis on this subject was conducted.

3. RESEACH DESIGN

This part is going to focus on the structure of the enquiry that is going to be conducted. It will serve as a logical task that will ensure that the collected evidence – that are going

2_{Crackers are cybercriminals who attack vulnerable computers for personal profit or for malicious} criminal purposes (Skibell, 2003). The financial profit and the criminal motivation is what differentiates them from hackers (Skibell, 2003) and they are considered to be a great threat to security (Zambo, 2007).

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to be further explained in the methodology part - are relevant and adequate to provide an answer to the research question and the theory testing.

To begin with, this paper will start with a descriptive approach to the matter. It will attempt to provide the reader with information on what is the situation of migrant smuggling in Greece. This provision of information will be focused on concrete descriptions such as migrant smuggling rates in Greece and rates on the usage of ICT by migrants that enter its borders; these will supply the reader with an overall image of the existing situation in Greece during the years of the European Migrant crisis (2015-2017). Next, more abstract descriptions will follow in order to enrich the pre-given image. Questions such as “How do migrant smuggling groups act in Greece?”, “What are their chosen means of action” and “With what other criminal fields they may be associated with?” will serve as additional sub-questions and will prove of value to giving a contextual insight on the matter and finally, to answering the main research question.

Assuming that the provision of all the necessary information would be adequate and complete, it should raise the question of “why”. “Why do migrant smugglers choose to facilitate their action via ICT?”. Answering this question would turn the nature of the research into an explanatory one, trying to give explanations for this behavior. It must be noted at this point that by trying to find the “why” in this behavior does not automatically mean that causation between migrant smugglers and usage of ICT will be sought after. In contrast, this paper will focus more on correlations such as “migrant smuggling and fraud” or “migrant smuggling and forgery” in order to show that one may affect the crime rates of the other but that does not mean that this is the only explanation to the issue. For example, fraud crime rates may also increase due to a possible increase in the online auction fraud scam and not merely because migrant smugglers make use of cyberspace in order to recruit more migrants.

After these questions have been answered and the reader will have grasped a clearer outlook on the matter, the paper will proceed to a theory testing. In more detail, it is going to be examined to what extent the Routine Activity Theory (Cohen & Felson, 1979) is able to explain this turn to new technologies by migrant smuggling groups. Moving from a more general and conceptually abstract level of explaining the theory itself, a more particular and empirical level will follow. By examining whether the three

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main concepts of the theory (motivated offender, suitable target, absence of a suitable guardian) are being met in real life, it would be possible to see whether RAT can be applied to this criminal field or not. In this way, it would be easier to understand the motivating mechanisms and the mentalities behind these types of criminal behavior. All of the above result into a qualitative research of the matter as this paper will try to explain relationships and analyze texts and discourses regarding one specific case. As a consequence, qualitative methods of research are going to be used and supported by some statistical data, even though a quantitative analysis will not be sought after as quantitative types of analysis aim at concrete and measurable results, that are not applicable at this case.

Given the focused scope of this paper on Greece, the chosen research design would be a holistic case study. In this manner, the severity of the matter is going to be better understood by the reader as the focus is going to be devoted to a single unit of analysis: Greece. The main goal of the case study would be the in depth and intensive study of the migrant smuggling phenomenon in Greece in order to give a contextualized insight of the issue and build explanations on its particularity and complexity within the time frame of 2015-2017. This time frame has been chosen due to the fact that 2015 marks the hiatus of the European migrant crisis, 2016 was the year that the EU-Turkey agreement has been signed in order to mitigate the issue and 2017 is the most recent year that one may find available data on the phenomenon.

Choosing the case study of Greece as the main research design of this thesis does not come with no pitfalls or hurdles. The fact that the paper only focuses on a single case offers little reliability in trying to generalize the findings of the research to broader spectrum. In contrast, it aims to draw conclusions of the uniqueness of the case. In addition, Greece may not be representative of the larger problem of migrant smuggling that is being investigated, therefore it cannot be described as typical. Lastly, as mentioned above, this design does not facilitate proper assessment of causation and spurious relationships between migrant smugglers and ICT but rather shows a correlation between these two phenomena and other types of criminality.

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To provide the reader with more concrete information on how the chosen research design would take form in this paper, this section is dedicated to showing the exact methodology that was followed in order to answer the sub-questions in the first place and then proceed to answering the main research question of this thesis. It is going to focus on what data were collected, how they were collected and how were analyzed. To begin with, statistical data were collected from online official reports and archival records on migrant smuggling in Greece during the set time frame. The used documents are mainly published by EUROPOL and its affiliates, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), the International Migration Organization (IMO), the European Union and the Greek Government. The UNODC Statistics and the ELSTAT websites were used to collect raw data and incorporate them in the context of this paper. The Hellenic Police states in its 2016 report on Organized Serious Crime (Hellenic Police, 2017) that migrant smuggling is usually associated with both fraud and forgery, so consequently, data on these types of criminality were also collected from the same online sources. These statistical data supported and enriched the descriptive part of this thesis whose main aim is to provide the reader with a comprehensive picture of the matter.

Moving on to the explanatory part of the thesis, the question of “Why do migrant smuggling groups facilitate their actions via ICT?” is going to be the main focus of attention. This question was answered through the theory testing that this paper conducted. In order to examine whether RAT can explain the reasons why migrant smugglers turn to cyberspace for facilitation, previous academic literature and interviews from migrant and smugglers were analyzed with the aid of Atlas.ti. Atlas provides the opportunity to organize and categorize the main indicators of this research into cohesive and presentable tables. In addition, it helps with the main pitfall of this qualitative research which is the overwhelming amount of data and indicators that may be relevant to the issue.

Regarding the documents that were selected for this part of the paper, they were academic papers that depended on interviews with migrants and journalistic articles that also have interviewed both smugglers and migrants. Although, the latter are not of academic nature they can be used to provide the reader with an overall view on how these criminalities take place in real life and it would complement the academic articles

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that are going to be discussed. These interviews have proven rich in information on the smugglers’ part and on the migrants’ point of view. Given the “hidden” nature of these groups it would be extremely difficult to conduct such interviews myself, therefore online existing interviews will prove adequate to provide a more cohesive outlook on what means migrant smuggling groups use to enhance their current criminal activities. In order for the pre-mentioned procedure to take place, the three main concepts of the theory were turned into six indicators that were sought after in the pre-mentioned selected texts. For example, according to the first factor of the Routine Activity Theory (RAT), a criminality takes place when there is a motivated offender. A motivation is not solely about the right opportunity appearing at the right moment (Sasse, 2005). Although Cohen and Felson (1979) claim that given the right opportunity anyone can be become an offender, this paper will attempt to find some of the potential reasons that motivate an offender.

In the case of migrant smugglers, two of the main arising indicators to measure one’s motivation to commit such a crime is - apart from opportunity - financial profit and facilitation of the action (Tropina, 2015). Apart from the interviews that were analyzed via Atlas, the pre-mentioned official reports and open sources were of great importance when measuring the first indicator, as they include approximate estimations of the financial benefits smugglers enjoy. As for the latter indicator, the same reports and interviews were used to show how easy is the process of facilitating their actions via ICT in order to justify the reasons why they choose it as a means of action.

The second factor of RAT is the presence of suitable target. A target may be characterized as suitable due to a number of reasons and most of them have to do with the “attractiveness” of the circumstances that accompany the victim, i.e. the migrant. Migrants can be considered as a vulnerable social group; they are in lack of a place to call home; they are financially unstable and they are in desperate need of help. As with every social group some of them may not be technologically savvy, thus they might be easily deceived by online frauds that are conducted by migrant smugglers. As a result, the main indicators selected for the second factor of the theory were the migrants’ financial (in)abilities and the awareness migrants have on (secure) ICT use. Both of these indicators were estimated by the analysis of the pre-mentioned sources of online documents and interviews.

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The third and final concept of RAT is the absence of a capable guardian. A guardian may be either someone or something that prevents a criminality from taking place (Wall, 2016). Since this paper examines the expansion of migrant smuggling groups to cyberspace via the use of new technologies, an evaluation of this concept took place in both the terrestrial world that migrant smugglers mainly act, but also in the cyber world, where they are expanding. Two of the main indicators for measuring this theory concept are the existence of legislation in Greece and the European Union that prevent criminality of such type and the existence of programs and projects that authorize people with the ability to prevent migrant smugglers from facilitating their action in cyberspace. These indicators are going to be measured by gathering and analyzing European and Greek legislation that is available online in order to see how they were implemented in Greece’s society. Some of the selected interviews would also give an image of the situation.

Regarding the procedure followed with Atlas, first, a coding scheme was created (see Appendix A) in order to set and explain the pre-mentioned indicators. Then, all the documents were put in the program, where a research had been conducted on all the interviewees’ testimonies. Each testimony that was found relevant, was matched to the respective indicator in order to show what is the actual situation in real life through these people’s views. After all of the documents had been researched and assigned to the respective indicator, the outcomes were exported to a cohesive table (See Appendix B) that showed what the interviewees had said on each matter. In this manner, it was made possible to see how many of the indicators were met and in what way.

The table that follows summarizes all the indicators that are relative to the theory testing that is going to be conducted within the framework of this paper. Having analyzed all the concepts, indicators and procedures that are going to be followed, the next part will focus on the analysis of the pre-mentioned collected data.

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5. MIGRANT SMUGGLING IN GREECE

The situation regarding the migrant smuggling in Greece is going to be discussed in this part of the paper. It has been observed that during recent years, and especially since the outburst of the European Migrant Crisis in 2015, Greece has transformed from an emigration to an immigration country (Antonopoulos & Winterdyk, 2006) as it has experienced a dramatic increase in the numbers of undocumented migrants and refugees it has received.

Multiple factors have played a crucial role in this development. Both “push” and “pull” reasons alongside some facilitating factors have provided migrants with a solid background on why they have chosen to leave their country. Especially for the case of Greece, most of the migrants are of Syrian or Afghan decent (Friedman, 2018). Both Syria and Afghanistan are countries that are faced with a crippling economy and a decadent society due to the armed conflicts that have outbroke in 2011 and 2001, respectively – resulting in a mass emigration of their population in order to seek stability and safety elsewhere. Poverty, armed conflicts and unstable political conditions that are met in these states can be considered as some of the “push” factors that drive people into migration to Europe.

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In addition to the above, Greece provides potential migrants with some “pull” factors that are equally appealing as the above-mentioned ones. For instance, Greece’s current political instability and lack of sufficient funds3_{may be perceived as an advantage to}

illegal migrants that only view Greece as a transit country to their final destination. In this manner, the trespassing of the borders may prove to be easier as there will not be adequate and strict controls by national authority forces. Although, this aspect may be lessened by European forces, such as FRONTEX that has provided some help to battle the problem by coordinating all European forces and by financing some of the operations ("European Border and Coast Guard Agency (Frontex) - European Union - European Commission", 2018).

Moreover, Greece’s geographical location is one of the main reasons it attracts the vast majority of migrants. Greece is located at the crossroad of Europe, Asia and Egypt, and making it an ideal “getaway” to more Western Countries (Antonopoulos & Winterdyk, 2006). In addition, it shares borders with Albania, the Former Yugoslavic Republic of

3_{For instance, for the time period of 2014-2017, Greece’s national budget for border controls was up} to € 509 million (ITA, 2016) in contrast to the fellow country that has faced the same issue with migrant smuggling: Italy – whose budget was approximately over € 3000 million for the stricter control of its borders (Ministero dell’Economia e della Finanze, 2017).

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Macedonia (FYROM), Bulgaria and the European part of Turkey – countries that have been proved to be involved into the smuggling of a plethora of migrants during the last years (Kuschmider, de Bresser & Siegel, 2015). The terrain of Greece is also extremely difficult to guard efficiently due to its long, deserted shores, its mountains and other geographical characteristics that can me acquainted in its northern borders (United Nations, 2013).

Apart from the above, other factors also facilitate this overwhelming increase of migrants in Greece’s soil. One of them is the removal of foreign restrictions when it comes to border crossing. Being a member-state of the Schengen area, Greece provided migrants with the possibility of an easier and unhindered journey to another state of the Union. During the last year, this has proven to be more difficult in reality, as many countries (i.e. France, Austria, Germany, Denmark, Sweden and Norway) reintroduced temporary border controls that enable them to protect their territory from serious threats to their internal security and public policy ("Temporary Reintroduction of Border Control - Migration and Home Affairs - European Commission", 2018). Nevertheless, the Schengen Treaty leaves multiple other states for the migrants to choose among.

All of the above made Greece an ideal destination or transit country for people who wished to move to Europe (or even to the United States of America or Canada) through Greece. This has been taken advantage of by migrant smugglers who seem to be taking the opportunity to profit out of this situation, showing an obvious correlation between irregular migration and migrant smuggling (FRONTEX, 2016). In fact, according to statistical data provided by the Hellenic Police, 911,471 migrants were detected to illegally cross the Greek borders and especially the Greek-Turkish sea border (Hellenic Police, 2016). This number decreased down to 204,820 in 2016 due to the agreement between the EU and Turkey in March 2016 (Hellenic Police, 2017). Finally, there was a significant

Graph 2. Number of arrested irregular migrants in Greece. Source: Statistical data of Hellenic Police

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shrinkage of the irregular migrant population in 2017 when the detected number of irregular migrants was 68,112 (“Hellenic Police”, 2018).

Out of these listings, the Hellenic Police solved a plethora of cases where migrant smugglers were involved. More specifically, Greek forces in cooperation with FRONTEX coast guards arrested 1501 migrant smugglers in 2015, 950 in 2016 and 1399 in 2017 (“Hellenic Police”, 2018). According to the Hellenic Police statistical data4_{, the majority of them were of Syrian, Greek and Turkish origin (Hellenic Police,}

2017).

5.1. How do migrant smugglers act in Greece?

As this paper focuses on the case study of Greece it would be more than necessary to examine how these migrant smugglers act within its borders. To begin with, interviews that have been contacted in some researches concerning Greece, showed that there is a “division of labor” among the OCGs of migrant smugglers (Antonopoulos & Winterdyk, 2006; European Commission, 2015). Although, some differences among the testimonies may be noticed, there are some key-players that are met in the majority of the migrant smuggling OCGs that act in the country:

4_{These data only refer to the years of 2015 and 2016, as the report for 2017 will be published in} October 2018.

Graph 3. Citizenship of arrested smugglers in Greece 2015 and 2016. Source: Hellenic Police Report on Organized and Serious Crime (2017)

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 The smuggler-topman: he is the leader of the organization and in charge of the planning.

 The recruiter: in most cases he is a citizen of the destination/transit country therefore he is familiar with the language and the peculiarities of the country; in some cases, he collects the initial fees for transportation from the migrants. He may be the one to use social media and cyberspace in general to recruit more people.

 The driver(s): he can be of different nationalities and may differ from country to country; he is responsible for the transportation of the migrants by either truck or car and Antonopoulos & Winterdyk’s (2006) research showed that many of them in Greece are taxi drivers. In case the smuggling takes place on foot, they are called guides.

 The skipper(s): he is responsible for the driving of the sea vessel and is usually a migrant himself.

 The scouter(s): he is responsible for providing information about possible control checks therefore he has to be familiar with the localities and the procedures. If he is not a citizen of the country, he may have lived there for a long period of time in order to be at ease with speaking the language and moving around. He is also familiar with ICT as he has to inform his fellow members with up-to-date information through messaging applications.

Although these are the core members of the Greek migrant smuggling groups, corrupted officials also play a vital role to this procedure. They may be coastguards, police officers or embassy employees who are bribed to either facilitate the process or to turn a blind eye when they encounter one of the pre-mentioned members of such an OCG (Antonopoulos & Winterdyk, 2015). They may not be among the core members of the organization but they are “a vital node in the criminal network” (Williams, 2001, pg. 76).

In order for all the members to cooperate and successfully carry out the smuggling of the migrants, they have to be in constant communication with each other and manage to gather as much information as possible about the journey. In this manner, any chance for apprehension may be significantly mitigated; in case of one taking place, the members may be in a position to inform the rest of the organization in order to avoid prosecution and cancel or carry out the process elsewhere. One of the most popular

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ways to achieve that is by using ICT and more specifically the Internet and smartphone applications.

5.2. What are a smuggler’s preferred means of action?

Irregular migrants that have been interviewed by the University of Patras, Greece, also claimed that they use the same applications for both communication and amusement. In detail, 13 out of the 16 interviewees made frequent use of Facebook and 9 out of the sample used WhatsApp. In addition, 8/16 used both YouTube and Viber, 4/16 were Instagram users and only 2/16 made use of Telegram (Katrimpouza, 2017). Apart from this small sample, though, there has been noticed an increased usage of ICT and most particularly, of smartphones by this generation’s migrants, therefore they are usually called as “Digital Refugees” (“Digital Refugee”: The Impact of Technology on Syrian Migrants and The Smugglers Who Profit – Technology and Operations Management", 2018).

Not surprisingly, some of the most used applications by smugglers are Facebook and its affiliated company: WhatsApp. The latter, in particular, uses end-to-end encryption to prohibit any third party from spying on conversations, hence the increased preference by these groups (De Silva, 2017). According to the first report of the European Migrant Smuggling Center (EMSC) of 2016, Facebook also ranks high the preferences of smugglers, as they use it not only for communication with fellow members or migrants, but also for openly advertising their “business” (EMSC, 2017). After all, criminals have the ability to use the Internet in the exact same way legal business do, in order to advertise and attract clients (Sykiotou, 2007) and they are most likely to be more active in websites and applications that are most used by their targeted group of interest. According to EMSC reports, 1150 suspicious accounts have been reported in 2016; a number that was significantly larger than the corresponding one of 2015 that hardly reached 148 reported accounts (EMSC, 2017). EMSC states in the same report that its objective for better monitoring and controlling such accounts is placed high in its agenda (EMSC, 2017), as many Facebook accounts are still online and available to the public, providing fraudulent advertising to desperate migrants. Indeed, someone can easily find smuggling groups on the platform by simply typing an Arabic translation of “European route” or “Syria to Europe”.

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23 Image 1. Migrant Smuggling Facebook ad. Source: Facebook. Rough translation: “Peace for you and God while having His blessings. Whoever is interested in smuggling from Syria to Turkey. from Turkey to Greece and from there to Europe, contact this +905355925181

Image 2. Migrant Smuggling Facebook ad. Source: Facebook. Rough translation: “Travel to Europe with three different ways:

A commercial steamboat from Turkey to the city of Bari, Italy while being guaranteeing free on-board movement, food and drinks.

A Schengen Visa from Ukraine to Italy, including the asylum status.

From Turkey to Greece and from Greece to any European country on my behalf, with the option to pay after arrival. Contact +905312479543

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To sum up, smugglers seem to keep in touch with fellow organization members through the use of ICT, in order to exchange faster and easier up-to-date information about the journey, avoiding this way security checks and law enforcement officers (EMN, 2016). In addition, the use of social media platforms proves to be less costly and safer to use (due to encryption and anonymity) which consequently leads to more effectiveness and bigger profits by providing the smugglers with the opportunity to reach a much wider group of interested migrants (EMN, 2016). According to FRONTEX, this has led to an increase in the volume of successful migrant smuggling operations as the smugglers seem to be well-prepared and well-informed (EMN, 2016). In conclusion, it is becoming more obvious at this point how smugglers in Greece have used ICT in order to enhance their effectiveness and what are their preferred means of action.

5.3. With what other criminal fields can migrant smuggling be associated with?

Apart from the direct use of ICT and cyberspace, migrant smugglers tend to be in close cooperation with other fields of criminality that also use technology in a manner that facilitates the proper smuggling process. According to the Hellenic Police report on Organized and Serious crime of both 2015 and 2016, migrant smuggling is strongly connected with fraud and forgery (Hellenic Police, 2016; Hellenic Police, 2017). This happens due to the fact that the smugglers often supply migrants with the needed forged document that may be a passport, an entry visa, false marriage certificates or work contracts, request for family reunions or health visits (Salt & Stein, 2002). EUROPOL expands this list by adding national ID cards, Schengen visas, driver’s licenses, asylum seeker’s registration cards and residence permits (Forgery of Administrative Documents and Trafficking Therein”, 2018)

In 2015, 16 criminal groups, which were composed of 57 multinational members, have been arrested for supplying smugglers with fraudulent and forged documents - mainly in Attica, Lesvos and Kos – (Hellenic Police, 2016). This number in 2016 experienced a massive reduce of 75%, as the arrested criminal groups involved in fraud and forgery were only 4 and the participating members were 17 (Hellenic Police, 2017). In both case, the majority of the members were Greek citizens and were found to have close relationships with migrant smuggling groups from Turkey.

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OCGs that are located in Greece and Turkey – which are some of the key exit/entry points of Europe – are frequent and constant providers of falsified travel documents (EMSC, 2018). FRONTEX claims that both the quality and the quantity of forged documents have been improved over the last years, as smugglers tend to work with professional counterfeiters that can produce high quality false documents (FRONTEX, 2017). In 2015, 417 fraudulent documents were detected crossing Greek borders, 280 in 2016 and 308 in 2017 – where 28% of the documents was forged passports (FRONTEX 2018).

The Hellenic Police states that most of these passports are created from online data that have been stolen from multiple individuals in order to be used for the production of falsified or counterfeited documents (Hellenic Police, 2016). In more detail, according to a research conducted by Panteion University, Greece, fraudsters use technologically advanced equipment in order to both acquire this type of data from cyberspace and to maximize the quality of the forged document. Personal Computers (PCs), scanners, digital cameras and printers in combination with software programs such as “Fine Reader” or “Adobe Photoshop” are

Table 4. Arrested counterfeiting criminal groups in Greece that were associated with migrant smugglers. Source: Hellenic Police

Image 3. Good quality counterfeit passport detected in Samos in 2016. Source: FRONTEX

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the preferred means of action for the counterfeiting groups (Athanasopoulou, 2017). The same research also claims that even if the equipment is not that technologically advanced, one may have a decent outcome with some basic software knowledge and a computer (Athanasopoulou, 2017).

Since 2015, two major EUROPOL operations have proven to be of great importance in the battle against fraud and forgery that is associated with smuggling. Operation Maverick detected an OCG that was stealing and falsifying travel documents in order to sell them to irregular migrants, not just in Greece but throughout Europe. 11 members were arrested, 939 travel documents have been confiscated and a large variety of stamps, receipts for financial transactions and digital devices have been seized (EMSC, 2017). In a similar manner, Greek forces in cooperation with EUROPOL managed to successfully target a counterfeiting OCG that was involved in document fraud and migrant smuggling especially from Greece to the United Kingdom. With Operation Taurus, 20 people were arrested and 4 fully-equipped print shops with printers, scanners, passports, IDs, certificates, driving licenses, boarding passes and stamps had been seized (EMSC, 2017).

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Apart from this use of new technologies, the EMSC states that OCGs of this type also use the Web and technologically advanced equipment to manipulate anti-forgery devices with fingerprint spoofing5 or morphing6, to abuse governmental systems that are used to issue official documents in an attempt to produce authentic certificates with stolen data and to illicitly trade such documents in DarkNet (EMSC, 2018). In some cases, travel documents are being rented to migrants and re-used for other criminalities, too (EMSC, 2018). These types of “high” criminalities have not been met in Greece yet as there are no reported incidents or arrests in official governmental documents. As a conclusion, migrant smugglers in Greece seem to have taken the opportunity to incorporate any aspect of technology they find more appealing and suitable to their needs into their operational manual in order to facilitate their actions and maximize their profits. Some groups of this kind have managed to differentiate themselves from the competitive “business” of smuggling and to address a wider public by advertising their services – and their affiliates’ services - on social media; to minimize their costs; to protect themselves as much as possible from prosecution by using encrypted communication apps and to be constantly fully informed about possible border controls and alternative journey routes from using cybespace to find up-to-date information. Taking all the above into consideration, the fact that the migrant smuggling “business” is still thriving – regardless all the additional adopted border checks at the external and internal borders of the EU – comes as no surprise. Smugglers around Europe, and particularly in Greece, achieved to use ICT to their advantage in an attempt to promote their services and expand their possibilities. The part that follows will attempt to explain the reasons “why” this phenomenon has taken place in Greece and to what extent it can be explained using the Routine Activity Theory that has been applied to similar types of criminality before but not in a Greek case study.

6. ROUTINE ACTIVITY THEORY TESTING

5_{Fingerprint spoofing refers to the use of fake fingerprints by copying fingerprints onto rubber.} (European Commission, 2016).

6_{Face morphing refers to the process of blending two facial images into one with the assistance of} digital programs (European Commission, 2016).

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In this part, a testing to the Routine Activity Theory (RAT) is going to be conducted. As mentioned in Part 2, RAT is a theory first developed by Cohen and Felson in 1979 (Cohen & Felson, 1979) in order to explain the increasing American crime rate in the 1970s, mostly focusing on street crime and burglaries. Many scholars since then attempted to expand this theory in other criminological fields, such as terrorism (Clarke & Newman, 2006) and organized crime (Cornish & Clarke, 2002), therefore it would be interesting to see whether it also applies to migrant smugglers and to their choice to expand their activities to cyberspace.

No matter the focal point of each version of this theory, some points remain the same:  All versions are based on the assumption that a criminality will take place if an individual takes the opportunity to act on the circumstances, regardless the type of crime.

 All versions face the criticism of speaking of “motivated offenders” but not explaining how an offender becomes motivated to commit any type of crime.  There are three main criteria (theory concepts) that must be met in order for a

criminality to take place: the presence of a motivated offender, a suitable target and the absence of a capable guardian.

This paper is going to attempt to search for some of the motives that urge an offender to act and to research whether the third point and its three main concepts are being met in Greek society. To do so, two indicators for each concept are going to re-introduced

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from Part 2 to the reader. With the aid of some statistical data concerning each indicator, alongside the analysis of 10 text interviews and one documentary that included several interviews, conclusions are going to be drawn on whether this theory applies to OCGs like migrant smugglers that act in Greek territory. The statistical data have been selected from reports and databases due to their relevance to the matter nature.

In the same manner, the interviews have been selected through online research of academic papers and major journalistic websites and newspapers that have proven to conduct thorough and unbiased research in order to provide a more empirical point of view on the matter. The main criteria for the selection of these specific interviews were that they refer to: i) Greece, ii) the set time frame and iii) the technological aspect of the issue.

In the cases that the theory is not being fully met in Greek society or a contradicting indicator arises from the relevant data or the selected interviews, a further analysis will take place using an alternative theory in order to provide the reader with a spherical point of view via a focused analysis.

6.1. Motivated Offender

The first concept RAT is speaking of is the presence of a motivated offender. As stated above, the theory takes for granted that given the opportunity, the offender will certainly commit a crime. In order for this paper to be able to measure the magnitude this concept takes in Greece, it attempts to also find out what may be the reasons that motivate a likely offender - apart from the fact that the right opportunity has been given to him. Since OCGs appear to be more sophisticated and more “business-like” in recent years (Tropina, 2015), the first indicator of motivation would be the potential financial profit and subsequently the facilitation of action.

Financial profit has been one of the main goals a criminal has. In this case, the OCGs acting in the Mediterranean Sea by smuggling migrants into Greece have made an extremely profitable business out of the situation. According to interviewed migrants some appear to have fixed prices for any service that they may provide:

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while others fluctuate the cost of the service according to the medium of transportation or the route. For instance, according to a smuggler interviewed by the Huffington Post: “Prices in winter per adult are: Rubber boats: $500–700, Jet boats: $1200–1500, Yachts: $1500–2000. Prices in summer increase by 30 percent as the numbers of migrants rapidly increases when the water temperature gets warmer.” (Allawi, 2016). The average cost per migrant in general seem to be somewhere between $1000-$1500, while the rate for children may be the half or even to be smuggled for free as “they don’t take any seating space as long as their parents carry them throughout the trip” (Allawi, 2016). Taking into consideration the fact that a medium sized boat usually fits around 30 migrants per trip (Allawi, 2016), then the average profit for the smuggler acting in Greece for this specific journey is around $30,000-$45,000.

Many interviewed migrants report that smugglers tend to have the same mentality when it comes to profit by stating that “they don’t value anything apart from money” (Kingsley, 2015) and that “the most important thing is that you have your money in your pocket” (Adamson & Akbiek, 2015). In addition, smugglers that have been interviewed on the matter they have responded with phrases such as:

“When I send you out to sea you'll either make it or you won't. Either way I'll make my money” (Smith, 2015), or:

“If the ship sinks…we lose all the money” (Kingsley, 2015b), leaving aside the human cost of such an incident.

By taking all the above into consideration, one may be able to see the significance smugglers put on the monetary profit of their “businesses” and how important it for them. As a consequence, they take the opportunity the situation in the Middle East has provided them with and they become motivated to commit such a crime.

As mentioned before, apart from the lavish monetary profit smugglers earn by providing their services, they seem to keep searching for ways to facilitate their actions by new means. For instance, they seem to gain more “clients” by advertising their services on social media and especially in the case of Greece, on Facebook – as mentioned in Part 5. These platforms are free for everyone to use and they provide the criminal with the opportunity to reach a much bigger target group that may be interested in his services. Especially in this era, where refugees have been given the title of

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“Digital Refugees” (“Digital Refugee”: The Impact of Technology on Syrian Migrants and The Smugglers Who Profit – Technology and Operations Management", 2018) by some scholars, it would only make sense for smugglers to attempt to expand their “businesses” to the digital world. One interviewed smuggler even urged the interviewer to look at his Facebook page when he was asked about his services (Mire & Winograd, 2015).

Moreover, through the use of new technologies they can facilitate their actions even more easily than before. The use of smartphones, for example, makes it easier for them to communicate with the group’s members or the refugees (“We are waiting for the smuggler to call us and inform us we set off” ) (Videmšek,2015), find alternative routes in case of an emergency by using the installed GPS in the device and also, find any other available up-to-date information about the journey they are about to make. Additionally, as mentioned also in Part 5, technologically advanced equipment, such as scanners and printers help relevant criminal fields such as forgers, that are closely affiliated with the migrant smuggling network. This facilitation may prove of great importance to the latter’s overall profits.

6.1.1. An opposing point of view

At this point, it can be noted that both the set indicators are being met according to the provided numbers but also according to the statements of migrants and smugglers. Smugglers acting in Greece seem to become motivated offenders due to the monetary profit they will acquire but also because ICT have made their “job” a bit easier in terms of facilitation and comfort. Although, according to some of the interviewed smugglers, there seems to be another – less popular - reason why they choose to become motivated to engage in this type of criminality: ethics.

If one looks into the studied interviews closely, they will find a pattern on the smugglers’ opinions on why they engage in such actions. The majority of them seem to think that they are helping their fellowmen escape the horror of war and start anew in another peaceful country.

“I don’t see myself as a criminal. I’m not doing anything to hurt anybody. I am helping out my own people and earning some money doing it” (Videmšek, 2015);

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“If I’m making money at the same time as helping my countrymen, what’s the problem? I’m the only person people can trust in this business.” (Kingsley, 2015b);

“I try to help everyone. When I see someone whose money was stolen by a smuggler, I try to help him and send him for free” (Mire & Winograd, 2015)

are some of the answers smugglers gave when asked their opinions on what they are doing.

Many smugglers seem to leave the criminal aspect of their “business” aside and focus more on the fact that they are helping people escape warzones. From this perspective, they justify their actions by abiding by their personal morality codes, a meaning that can be better explained through the lens of Kohlberg’s Moral Development Theory (1971). In more detail, Kohlberg suggests that there are three levels of morality for every individual:

 The pre-conventional level; that usually refers to young children who do not have a personal code of morality and they abide by the morality standards their parents passed upon them.

 The conventional level; where the individual starts to shape their own moral standards based not just on the wider rules of society but also, on the moral standards of valued adult role models.

 The post-conventional level; that refers to the stage where the individuals set their own principles based on individual rights and justice. The individual acknowledges that there are certain rules or laws that are beneficial to the common good but there are times when they do not work for the all the people. This is when they start to develop their own set of moral guidelines that may not always fit the established laws.

Following Kohlberg’s third level of moral development, smugglers seem to set their own perceptions of what is right and what is wrong, and mostly based on their previous experiences, they tend to justify their actions by claiming they do the right thing by helping their fellowmen. This mentality can also be explained by Bates (1950), who - based upon Abrahamsen’s Theory of the Etiology of Criminal Acts - claims that the offender is very often strongly affected by his past or present experiences; especially if

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those are charged with negative emotions. Indeed, one of the smugglers reaffirms this explanation with his statement that:

“I never took advantage of any of my fellow refugees. I never cheated anyone. I don’t want them [fellow refugees] to experience what happened to me.” (Videmšek, 2015), referring to his previous experience with other migrant smugglers that attempted to smuggle him in Lesbos island in Greece; but when the boat carrying him and his fellow migrants capsized they were left on their own to swim to the shore and they were offered no reimbursement. Instead, the smugglers threaten to shoot anyone who would make a scene (Videmšek, 2015).

No matter what is the driving force behind their actions, smugglers seem to be motivated to carry on with this type of criminality for as long as the crisis in the Middle East continues. This is in compliance with RAT’s focus on the opportunity that is introduced to the offender, rather the motives behind his actions. Indeed, in today’s current situation - with the closed borders from the Former Yugoslavic Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) and Bulgaria, alongside the EU-Turkey agreement – smugglers admit that “It is harder to get to [the rest of] Europe from Greece” (Kingsley, 2015b), but the numbers provided in Part 5 show that, although there has been a decrease in smuggled migrants, the overall influx through Greek territory remains high.

6.2. Suitable Target

The second concept RAT mentions of is the presence of a suitable target. In order for a target to be named as “suitable”, it has to attract the offender by having financial abilities and consequently some value. Moreover, it has to be accessible to him – in this case through ICT use. As long as the first indicator of value/financial abilities is concerned, many migrants seem to have planned the journey beforehand, therefore they have accommodated for the financial aspect of the trip.

In a VICE Greece documentary on migrants that cross three countries on foot in order to reach Europe, it is mentioned that migrants sell everything they have or try to find jobs in order to finance their journey. More specifically, one migrant claimed that “his employer owed him €10,000, but he told me [the interviewer] that he gave him €4,000 to leave” (Mutafis, 2015). In addition, smugglers view Syrians as “more picky” since

Migrant Smugglers and ICT in Greece

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