Migration a multi-billion dollar industry: Amitav Ghosh

The migration network is extensive and has gone on to become a multi-billion dollar industry linking organisations in Europe to those in Africa and Asia, says author Amitav Ghosh who has been focusing on this topic in several of his books including his latest, "Gun Island".

Migration, according to him, is happening on such a big scale that it is almost impossible to control.

He says, one of the things that led him to write this novel is the refugee crisis, specifically the European refugee crisis of 2014-16.

"Lot of the people coming across were from Libya, Tunisia and Egypt. These are countries where I have spent time. I found myself quite hypnotised by the unfolding of this crisis. I started looking at the pictures that were on the front pages of newspapers. There were many South Asian faces in the boats - people from this part of the world," he says.

In some months among the refugees who were crossing the Mediterranean, one of the largest groups was from Bangladesh, he says.

"I began to wonder what is it that is making this happen. I spent a lot of time in Italy visiting the refugee centres, visiting migrant camps and talking to migrants and refugees. And try to find out what had made them undertake this long and dangerous journey. It was kind of a revelation seeing what was happening," Ghosh told PTI in an interview.

For the research of his book, published by Penguin, while speaking to the migrants, he found out interesting details about this kind of migration and movement: "what lies behind is a very well organised industry, very powerful industry with a lot of money involved."
"Inside Italy, there are many people who worked in NGOs and others who try to help and support the migrants. I talked to a lot of them. It's interesting to see how this whole thing is playing out."