You searched for: “migrants
migrant (s), migrants (pl)
1. A traveler who moves from one foreign region to a different one.
2. Someone who is habitually moving from place to place; especially, in search of seasonal work.
3. A person who belongs to a normally migratory culture who may cross national boundaries, or who has fled his or her nation for economic reasons rather than a fear of political or ethnic persecution.
4. An animal, especially a bird, that moves from one region to another, often at the same times each year in order to breed or to avoid unsuitable weather conditions.
5. An itinerant worker who travels from one area to another in search of work.

Fate of some illegal migrants trying to get into the European Union

  • The main institutions that are trying to protect migrants say that criminal gangs are profiting from the desire for a better life, and believe they have a reasonable picture of how the networks operate.
  • Criminal involvement has enabled a surge of illicit immigration into the European Union, and the inbound routes are always shifting, as criminals assess the risks and rewards.
  • So lucrative are the rackets that officials believe organized crime is largely to blame for the six-fold increase last year in illegal migration from African shores to the Canary Islands of Spain.
  • The stakes are high, both for the migrants who sell everything they own, and for the smugglers who are ruthless in fleecing them
  • The economics of clandestine migration are all in favor of the gangs.
  • The United Nations Office for Drugs and Crime has estimated that the transportation of migrants from Africa to Europe nets criminal gangs about 300 million euro a year (more than 405 million dollars).
  • Once their passages have been paid, the migrants, hidden in safe houses until 100 or more are ready to depart, are vulnerable to extortion; smugglers commonly demand still more money for food, a better motor, or a satellite navigation system.
  • According to some authorities, the traffickers, with the fees in their pockets, have little interest in the boat's reaching its destination.
—Excerpts from "Gangs wring profits from illegal migrants:
Trading on dreams of a better life in EU"
by Caroline Brothers; IHT March 20, 2007; pages 1 & 8.

This entry is located in the following units: -ant, -ants (page 7) migr-, migrat- (page 1)