- Larger human smuggling operations often build a brand that they employ both online (e.g. profile pictures; as a watermark on photos showcasing their activity) and offline (e.g. stickers on vehicles they use to transport migrants)
- These provide integrated services to migrants, ranging from provision of false documents to transport
- The brand is often a combination between a nickname and an image; the image is either a calligraphic writing of their name (this is very common in the case of Arab/Persian smugglers) or a photo of a bird/animal.
- If they use a bird/animal symbol, it is always one which conveys strength (e.g. birds of prey such as eagles or haws; or wild animals such as wolves, bears, lions etc.)
- Most smugglers of this category have accounts with similar names across multiple platforms (e.g. Telegram, Facebook, YouTube); they also have back-up accounts on the same platform for security-purposes.
- Back-up accounts often use a variation on a name (e.g. Ebu/Abu) or numeric characters at the end (e.g. smugglereurope, smugglereurope1, smugglereurope01).
- Often when a route is provided in collaboration with other smugglers, the different logos are advertised together.
- Though a smuggler logo may be subjected to multiple rebranding (as their incomes and popularity increase one witnesses better designed logo) the key elements (e.g. name, animal symbol) are preserved to enable easy identification.
- The importance of brand for larger smuggling operations can also be seen from their focus on reputation
- On the Telegram platform (though fewer formal occurrences of the same can be found on Facebook) there are channels specifically designed to discuss smugglers’ reputation (immigration scammers)
- When their reputation is attacked on these channels, many smugglers react and seek to provide information related to the quality of the services provided.
- Moreover, there is evidence that human smugglers also “blackmail” irregular migrants to show video “proof” of the efficiency of their services (e.g. videos showing safe arrivals), which they can then publish on their channels.
- Social media channels associated to “branded” smugglers are often characterized by a high level of interaction. The owner of the channels posts a lot of information in relation to their activity and there is also a lot of engagement from the target audience (e.g. comments; likes; etc.)
- Some of these “branded” smugglers also offer live Q&A sessions where they answer questions from their audience related to the services they provide (e.g. cost, resource required, routes, time, safety).
