CIAO DATE: 07/05

Cross Border Trafficking in South Eastern Europe - Assessing Trafficking Activities in the Southern Adriatic Region

Abstract

Borders communities are more than just entry and exit points to a country. In the world of porous borders and transborder crime, these communities take on various aspects of the activities pursued in their environs. Some of these activities are clearly evident, such as the increase in youth appearing to be drug users. Other signs are more difficult to pinpoint, as one person's businessman becomes anotherŐs smuggler. These characteristics are exacerbated by the context of a post-conflict situation where tensions and isolation cause greater conspiracy theories rather than greater cooperation and coordination.

There is a growing literature on the issue of informal war economies, their effect, aftermath and the process of rebuilding both economies and communities in frontier and border regions. However most of this research has been conducted on the macro or theoretical level and has rarely ventured into the micro effects of such phenomena specific to border communities. Nor has much of this research attempted to put forward policy prescriptions, which link the complicated pieces together in a way that offers various levels of actors to address the situation.

Full Text (PDF, 70 pages, 1.19 MB)