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:

30 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

31 “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

33 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.