HUMAN RIGHTS provides an opportunity to move from the material available in the archive about smuggling in the past through to the present day. The following learning activity could be given directly to a class to work with.
Background and sources
INTERPOL, the international agency that works with national police forces to combat crime across international boundaries, emphasises that there is a difference between people smuggling and people trafficking. Smuggling involves consent, i.e. the people want to be moved and are usually prepared to pay for this, but do not have the necessary documentation to enter the country. Trafficking moves people without their consent or by deceiving them about what they will be able to do when they reach their destination.
The Interpol Web Site
Both smuggling and trafficking in people raise questions about human rights and diversity of opportunity for work within their home countries. It also raises many questions for the destination country and communities – such as illegal employment and exploitation and protection under the law.
QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION
What protection does an illegal immigrant have against abuse and exploitation? What about children of smuggled/trafficked people? |
The following sites provide information on people smuggling and the human rights issues that arise from this
This BBC news item dated 21 February 2006 says that a national scheme was being launched by police to crackdown on human smuggling. The team of police officers was to be based in Ferndown. It would concentrate on several areas, particularly Bournemouth. It comments on the links to prostitution.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/4530970.stm
http://www.forcedmigration.org/guides/fmo011/
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,190682,00.html
http://www.fmreview.org reviews attitudes of government
http://www.ash.org.uk/html/factsheets/html/fact17.html http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/lancashire/4832454.stm is a video report on the deaths and background of cocklers in Morecambe Bay , Lancashire . It raises issues about how people arrived in country and whether they entered legally.
QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION
What are your attitudes to people smuggling?
Are there circumstances when it can be justified?
If you knew someone had been smuggled in and would be hurt or abused if they were sent back, what would you do?
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CITIZENSHIP KS4 Unit 5
How the economy functions
LEARNING OUTCOMES:
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LEARNING OBJECTIVES:
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Children
Understand what taxes are
Understand the terms Duties, and VAT
Understand the effect of smuggling on the economy, the effects of taxes not collected and the effects on businesses which rely on legal imports
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Children learn
How the economy functions |
Activities
Background and Sources
The modern economy depends upon taxes. Taxes are used to provide funds for many things which we take for granted. Taxes are never liked by those who are taxed. Smugglers set out to avoid paying taxes. Smuggling has major implications for the economy.
SAMPLE LEARNING ACTIVITY
Taking the example of a single well-known smuggler, Isaac Gulliver (1745-1822), discuss the implications of his activities.
Use http://www.thedorsetpage.com/history/Smugglers/Smugglers.htm
and
www.smuggling.co.uk/gazetteer_s_13.htm#gulliver
DCDA links
http://www.dcda.org.uk/2-4influence/3detailed.html
The reports show that Gulliver had landholdings in many parts of Dorset , including Eggardon Hill. Some of these fields were used for grazing horses, probably his packhorses. He seems to have been expert in avoiding capture, although he was obviously well known to the Customs.
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" Gulliver was considered one of the greatest and most notorious smugglers in the west of England and particularly in the spirits and tea trades but in the year 1782 he took the benefit of his Majesty's proclamation for pardoning such offences and as we are informed dropped that branch of smuggling and afterwards confined himself chiefly to the wine trade which he carried on to a considerable extent having vaults at various places along the coast and "in remote places"
Report to His Majesty's Commissioners of Customs by the Poole Custom House, 1788 |
QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION
What would be the effects for the economy of Gulliver's activities before and after his pardon and changed activities? |
It is suggested that the pardon he received in 1782 was in thanks for saving King George III's life by revealing an assassination plot, but another story is that he was pardoned for passing information about the French fleet to Nelson.
By 1791, Isaac Gulliver is recorded in the Wimborne Directory as “Attorney”.
QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION
Should criminals be pardoned in order to provide intelligence which helps fight crime?
If they are pardoned, should they be able to benefit from their previous crimes?
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In August 2006 HM Revenue and Customs published a Report of a successful conviction of two former Customs' employees, involved in smuggling alcohol and cigarettes. It outlines the case and also gives the detailed charges. Compare this report with some of the historical reports that also describe corruption amongst Preventive and Customs employees.
QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION
What is the same or different about the modern and the historical legal procedures and sentences?
Are the roles of individuals eg officials, smugglers etc, similar in the past and today?
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USING SMUGGLING IN OPERA, MUSICALS AND DRAMA TO EXPLORE MODERN ISSUES
Smuggling has been a feature of many books but few operas. Gilbert and Sullivan wrote ‘ Ruddigore ' in 1887 in which they used their character Richard Dauntless, "a Man-o'-war's man", whose patrol boat (a Revenue sloop) is “engaged on coastal duties to deter smuggling," to give a satirical view of England's enforcement of its smuggling laws.
The best known OPERATIC example is Bizet's ‘ Carmen ' in which tobacco is being smuggled'.
In recent years, new operas have taken the smuggling theme of ‘ Carmen ' and adapted it to modern settings.
In South Africa , ‘ U-Carmen e-Khayelitsha' , an Africanised version of ‘ Carmen ', is based in a shanty town in a post-apartheid South African suburb where a black Carmen portrays the struggle of the working class, now vexed not by white rulers but the corrupt authority of their own race.
http://www.fortissimo.nl/articles/default.asp?id=799&type=2
In Canada , Calgary Opera's ‘ Filumena ' involves a young immigrant woman who, according to local gossip, becomes involved with a bootlegger (a smuggler of alcohol). They are accused of murder, found guilty and hanged. The opera is based on the true story of one of the few women to be hanged in Canada .
http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/
Musicals involving smuggling include ‘ Cabaret ' and ‘ Forbidden Music' .
An ACTIVITY for Citizenship, Drama, Music and History might draw upon the stories of smugglers, such as Harriet Tubman or Isaac Gulliver, and produce a short play or opera which brings the story into the present time. |
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