Human Smuggling Networks Operating Between Middle East and the European Union: Evidence from Iranian, Iraqi and Afghani Migrants in the Netherlands

The COMCAD Working Paper Series is intended to aid the rapid distribution of work in progress, research findings and special lectures by researchers and associates of COMCAD. Papers aim to stimulate discussion among the worldwide community of scholars, policymakers and practitioners. They are distributed free of charge in PDF format via the COMCAD website. The opinions expressed in the papers are solely those of the author/s who retain the copyright. Comments on individual Working Papers are welcomed, and should be directed to the author/s. Abstract Due to its challenging nature of traditional perspectives, human smuggling is always on the agenda of decision makers, politicians, media and academia. This article focuses on human smuggling between Middle East into the European Union, especially the Netherlands. Iran, Iraq and Afghanistan are the chosen countries from the region since there are increasing numbers of asylum seekers in Europe. The article briefly looks at different perspectives in the literature and then concentrates on the involvement of transnational organized crime in the process of human smuggling. Then it will try to analyze organized crime perspective by network analysis.