Facts and Figures
Virtually every country in the world is affected by people smuggling, be it in the capacity of country of origin, transit, or destination.
People smuggling between the United States and Mexico is a booming business that, as of 2003, garnered over $5 billion a year. Similarly, in the EU, profits from people smuggling operations is estimated to be around €4 billion per year.
People smuggling is a dangerous operation and has frequently resulted in the death of those individuals being smuggled. In 2004, 464 recorded deaths took place during the crossing from Mexico to the United States, and each year, an estimated 2000 people drown in the Mediterranean on the journey from Africa into Europe.
Read more about this topic: People Smuggling
Famous quotes containing the words facts and/or figures:
“The poor and the low have their way of expressing the last facts of philosophy as well as you. “Blessed be nothing,” and “The worse things are, the better they are,” are proverbs which express the transcendentalism of common life.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Families suffered badly under industrialization, but they survived, and the lives of men, women, and children improved. Children, once marginal and exploited figures, have moved to a position of greater protection and respect,... The historic decline in the overall death rates for children is an astonishing social fact, notwithstanding the disgraceful infant mortality figures for the poor and minorities. Like the decline in death from childbirth for women, this is a stunning achievement.”
—Joseph Featherstone (20th century)