ABSTRACT

Armed conflict, like crime, usually has several causes: religion and culture, power and status, territory and resources. There are four main connections between migration and crime: crime and especially war crimes are a major factor leading to migration, migrants become the object of criminal smugglers and traffickers in human beings, and some migrant groups manifest a higher crime rate than the host population. The connections also includes: culturally different migrant groups become the targets of racist attacks by criminal hooligans and ultra-nationalist parties. Transnational organized crime groups often threaten to harm members of their families in the country of origin if migrants try to free themselves from the sexual exploitation or the hard labour in illegal sweatshops forced upon them by traffickers. Trafficking in human beings, that is, the recruitment, transportation or receipt of persons through deception or coercion for the purpose of prostitution, other forms of sexual exploitation or forced labour.