From Matangi Tonga Magazine Vol. 18, no. 3, December 2003.

Human smuggling in all it forms remain an unforgivable crime, according to Denis Nihill, the regional Representative of the International Organisation for Migration (IOM). Denis visited Tonga in September.

Denis said that once a person accepted money to illegally take a person from one country to another, he become a human trafficker and had committed a very serious crime, “against the state and also against the person who has just paid him.”

Denis who had worked in many trouble spots, such as Kosovo, Afghanistan and recently in Nauru, refuses to accept the excuse made by human traffickers that they are doing a good job by helping people to move away from the misery of their home countries to where they can live a better lives.

“Some have tried to use that story, but there is now an international convention. It does not matter what they say, it is still clearly illegal. It is hard because you deal with the big picture but at the same time you are still confronted by the individual with all their miserable personal problems.”

Denis explained that traffickers were putting the lives of their clients at risk, and because they were illegal immigrants he or she will be deprived of his or her dignity and legal rights. It degraded a person’s human value to a mere object without any identity, and they were vulnerable for exploitation.

Denis said that his organisation was established 51 years ago, to move refugees after the Second World War to the main settlement countries of Canada, Australia and New Zealand, and it was known then as the Inter-government Committee for European Migration. “In 1989 we changed our name to International Organisation for Migration, and our core business is still the movement of people. For example, we handle all the refugee movements to Australia, Canada, USA, New Zealand and other countries from around the world. Our mandate is very simple. If the movement of people is managed properly it will benefit all parties.”

Denis said that IOM with its headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, now had 3300 officers working in 80 countries. The IOM is structured like the WTO and their operation is funded by government, based on their GDP.