THE ISLAMIC STATE AND ITS HUMAN TRAFFICKING PRACTICE 24-25. 10. 2017 Colonel János Besenyő, PhD.
Contents 1. Human trafficking across the Middle East 2. Basic motivations towards human trafficking 3. Financial benefits 4. Ideological considerations for the Islamic State o Societal reasons for trafficking, aims, targets 5. Trafficking as a weapon of war Child soldiers Sexual exploitation Distraction Elimination 6. Human trafficking as of 2017 in Syria 7. Conclusions
Human trafficking Universal Declaration of Human Rights - Trafficking Protocol defines human trafficking as: [...] the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons, by means of threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation ( ); Examples for similar trafficking operations: Al-Qaeda, Boko Haram, Al-Nusra (renewed strategy of predecessors)
Basic motivations Financial benefits Fundamentalist ideology and brutality Worldwidespread propaganda Recruitment success + activating radicals Maintaining the presence among current and settled migrants Connected networks of Middle-Eastern and European terrorist cells.
ISIS income proceeds from the occupation of territory 60% - Territorial losses! control of banks, oil revenues and gas reservoirs - is down 88% from 2015 Taxation and extortion - has fallen by 79% from 2015 robbery of economic assets (cement, wheat, cotton, etc.) decreasing Criminal enterprise: money laundering, sale of antiques and artifacts, illegal drug trade, organ traffick, smuggling migrants and other various items hostage-taking and ransom efforts - 20% - Henry Jackson Society suggests kidnapping brought in around $10 million to $30 million for ISIS in 2016 donations by or through non-profit organizations/fake humanitarian aid/wealthy sympathizers in countries including Qatar and Kuwait. - 5% material support provided by foreign fighters fundraising through modern communication networks legitimate business via third parties, which are the profit-driven businesses and tribal elites
ISIS income
Sources: http://icsr.info/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/icsr-report-caliphate-in-decline-an-estimate-of-islamic-states-financial-fortunes.pdf https://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/para/isil-2.htm http://data.parliament.uk/writtenevidence/committeeevidence.svc/evidencedocument/foreign-affairs-subcommittee/isil-financing/written/28203.pdf http://news.ihsmarkit.com/press-release/aerospace-defense-security/islamic-state-territory-down-60-percent-and-revenue-down-80
Financial benefits Expenditures: diversified stabilizing, social and institutional services for citizens. public administration system multi-tasked terrorist organization requires huge amount of money, which is only partly covered by financial assistance of individual donors. The Islamic State has cut back on governance and salaries, its two biggest expenses 2014 Thomson Reuters study, the terrorist group had more than $2 trillion in assets under its control, with an annual income of $2.9 billion. According to some estimates, the organization s revenues were dropped from $80 million in mid-2015 to $56 million in March 2016
Financial benefits ISIS brought in $16 million per month in the second quarter of 2017, a sharp decline from $81 million a month during the same period in 2015, but still the richest terrorist organisation! ISIS has lost 60% of its land since January 2015, with its holdings now reduced to a territory the size of Belgium they have to find new sorces Smuggler groups + increased pushed migration, profitable agreement for both sides The approximate value of human smuggling in Libya had risen $255m to $323m in 2014. The route from Syria to Turkey could reach over $ 8000 for an individual (2015) considerable amount of income for the ISIS. Sahan Foundation and the IGAD Security Sector Program (ISSP): some smugglers may also charge $400 to $500 to insure migrants against abductions.
The ISIS and organized crime Primary area of operation is located in Syria and Iraq, but as the recent terrorist attacks on European territories show, they also prepare and execute terrorist acts in Western territories. Human trafficking secures logistical supply. Either people, money, black-market items, organs or artifacts are considered, several links can be detected between illegal trafficking and various terrorist organizations. Sale centers for trafficking are operating in central hubs of the trafficking routes outside Syria and Iraq.
Trafficking routes
Societal reasons In an armed conflict situation, trafficking in persons is also used as a strategy to target ethnic and religious minorities. According to International Organisation of Migration (IOM), for example, armed groups have deliberately recruited and exploited members of ethnic and religious minorities in Iraq since the beginning of the civil war in 2014. ISIS target victims for sexual violence along ethnic, religious, and political lines Aims: distracting and destabilizing the local communities gaining authority and pressing fundamental ideology on the locals trafficking highly intimidates population, generates fear and contributes to the push-factors of migration Targets: Kafirs, Christian and Yazidi minorities
Trafficking as a weapon of war Since 2011, the society of the fragile state of Syria suffers from both internally and externally detectable migrant waves. According to the data of the U.S. Department of State, in the given time period (from 2011 to 2015) over 7.6 million Syrians were displaced internally, while simultaneously over four million refugees fled the country. Al-Dabiq: ISIS regularly claimed that thousands of its followers are blended among the unchecked crowd of the trafficked and fled migrants. Asset for a better position in the war: Enhances determination and increases the morale of its own troops. Eliminate opponents human capabilities: on 9th July 2014, the organization kidnapped at least 60 former Iraqi Army officers from southern and eastern Mosul to pre-empt the potential rebel strike. Further stresses the international community to reach universal reaction against the unchecked inflow of migrants to European territories
Recruitment of children for exploitation Although child trafficking often involves abduction or coercion, recruiters also appeal to notions of martyrdom and indoctrination to enlist children. Reports of the recruitment and use of boys by ISIS increased significantly in 2015. It actively deploys children some as young as 8 years old. Women and girls are particularly vulnerable to sexual and gender-based violence. UN reports: in October 2015 that Islamic State was holding approximately 3,500 civilians, mostly women and children, primarily Yazidi. Nadia Murad (a young Yazidi woman) appointed UNODC Goodwill Ambassador for the dignity of survivors of human trafficking in September 2016 Children also serve as an asset for human shields, suicide bombers, and executioners, as well as in support roles such as human intelligence, providing information on local environment and conditions.
Trafficking of women The Islamic State didn t come to kill the women and girls, but to use us as spoils of war, as objects to be sold... or to be gifted for free, /Nadia Murad Basee Taha/ Slaves are not listed as women they are labelled as merchandise. between 1 and 9 years old - $172. 10 to 20 years old - $129 20 to 30 years old - $86. 30 to 40 $75 In 2014, the terrorist organization operated an institutionalized process for abduction and sale of women slaves. According to the report of the UN, ISIS had abducted up to 2,500 civilians, predominantly women and children. Nadia Murad Basee Taha (2016): in testimony to the U.S Senate, put the number of those murdered in two weeks at 3000 men, women and children. Taha additionally testified that more than 3000 women and girls, and 1600 children were taken into captivity by the Islamic State group. Propaganda on sexual slavery serves as an incentive for new recruits and foreign fighters, with the promise of wives and sex slaves acting as a 'pull factor financial gain is a key driver behind sexual slavery, with ransom payments linked to sexual violence!
Sources: MALIK, Nikita: Trafficking Terror: How Modern Slavery and Sexual Violence Fund Terrorism, http://henryjacksonsociety.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/hjs- Trafficking-Terror-Report-web.pdf
2017 Trafficking in Persons Report - Syria Syria is a source and destination country for men, women, and children More than half of Syria s pre-war population of 23 million has been displaced; 5 million have fled to neighboring countries and roughly 6.3 million are internally displaced. Incidents of human trafficking continue to increase, Syrian children are reportedly vulnerable to forced early marriages. Use of children in combat in Syria has become commonplace, and documented cases of child soldiers continued to increase in 2016. ISIS operates at least three child training camps; forces children to attend indoctrination seminars; and promises children salaries, mobile phones, weapons, a martyr s place in paradise, and the gift of a wife upon joining the terrorist group. The Syrian refugee population is highly vulnerable to trafficking in neighboring countries, particularly Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq, and Turkey.
Conclusion motivations and facts 1. Financial benefits fill the holes 2. Fundamentalist ideology, trafficking and training children and foreign fighters 3. Worldwide spread propaganda, trafficking and abducting kafirs and women slaves, blending migration and generating ideological diversification among Western states 4. Maintaining the presence 5. Recruitment success + activating radicals, logistical supply, connected networks of Middle-Eastern and European terrorist cells. 6. ISIS attempting to increase its financial reserves from a highly bureaucratic and centralized quasi-state economy towards funding a future insurgency through a real war-economy
Bibliography U.S. Dep. Of State (2017): 2017 Trafficking in Persons Report Syria BESENYŐ, János (2017): The Islamic State and its Human Trafficking Practice, Strategic Impact, No. 3[60]/2016, pp. 15-22. FATF (2015): Financing of the Terrorist Organisation Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), http://www.fatf-gafi.org/media/fatf/documents/reports/financing-of-theterrorist-organisation-isil.pdf MALIK, Nikita: Trafficking Terror: How Modern Slavery and Sexual Violence Fund Terrorism, http://henryjacksonsociety.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/hjs- Trafficking-Terror-Report-web.pdf Jean-Charles Brisard and Damien Martinez: Islamic State: The economy-based terrorist funding, http://cat-int.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/white-paper-is- Funding_Final.pdf
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