Confirming what we had forecast at the outbreak of the COVID War – that crime, corruption, poverty, and violence would increase – the British Standards Institution (BSI) reported last week that the lockdowns have “led to complex and varying responses by individual governments and businesses and has wreaked havoc on supply chain continuity.”
Their annual Supply Chain Risk Insights Report said there has been an increase of drug smuggling and theft of shipments of pharmaceuticals and medical supplies. The research showed a spike as well in human smuggling and “stowaway incidents.”
“Unfortunately, we are seeing it’s most significant impact on vulnerable populations including migrant workers and children,” Jim Yarbrough, Global Intelligence Program Manager at BSI, said in a statement. “For example, through the data collected by our SCREEN intelligence tool, we’ve found that COVID-19’s negative impact on global economies has led to exploitation of vulnerable migrants who may be stranded in detention centers due to mobility restrictions and an increased use of child labor due to lockdowns and school closures.”
Reuters reported that human trafficking is a $150 billion-a-year trade, and about 25 million people across the world are victims of trafficking, according to the U.N.
John Cotton Richmond, U.S. Ambassador-at-Large to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons, told Reuters COVID and the world’s response to it “is making vulnerable people more vulnerable. The lockdowns, the inability to find work, the constraints on the economy, all of this makes you more vulnerable to criminal activity.”
“If you are a trafficker, this is a boon to your illicit operations. Traffickers are not shutting down; they are innovating and capitalizing on this chaos,” he said.
The BSI report said much of the pharmaceutical theft has occurred in Mexico, and warehouses across Europe have also been targeted. The statement said food and beverage products were the most stolen commodity in Asia.
