How do smuggling and trafficking operate via irregular border crossings in the Middle East? Evidence from fieldwork in Turkey [Comments s'y prennent les passeurs et les trafiquants pour faire franchir clandestinement les frontieres du moyen-orient par les migrants? Les resultats d'un travail de terrain en turquie]

This article summarizes main trends, issues, actors, and activities regarding the operation and extension of human trafficking and smuggling via irregular border crossings in the Middle East. Its premise is that rather than the obvious involvement of hierarchical mafia-type organized crime groups, globally articulated networks of locally operating independent, individual groups comprise the essential foundation for human trafficking and smuggling in the region. The available empirical evidence first suggests that elaborating on various aspects of human trafficking and smuggling is a delicate task and any consideration of priorities for data collection and analysis on these activities must start with a clear idea of the information needed and how to obtain that information. Given the highly sensitive nature of trafficking and smuggling issues, there is no simple research practice that can satisfy all these concerns. It is within this context that our analysis here only offers some partial explanation of the complex nature of human trafficking and smuggling in the Middle East. The data used here provide, to the best of our knowledge, the first primary, reliable, and representative information on traffickers and smugglers as they come directly from the narratives of the traffickers and smugglers interviewed. Evidence from our fieldwork in Turkey during the last five years indicates that the ongoing pattern of human trafficking and smuggling in the region is the outcome of quite complex interactions among locally operating individuals and groups, with the simultaneous and sequential operation of a variety of interacting factors, including the presence of interpersonal trust relations between human traffickers and smugglers and the migrants, and the existence of national-, ethnic-, kinship-, friendship-based networks spanning countries of origin, of transit, and of destination worldwide. The study has confirmed that the nature of trafficking and smuggling in the Middle East is quite different from similar activities found elsewhere in the world. Nevertheless, the study concludes that we should not disregard these issues from the perspective of criminal justice and human rights

extremity arterial revascularization

Background: This study aims to evaluate the patency rates and long-term outcomes of femoro-popliteal bypass procedures with Omniflow II biosynthetic vascular grafts in patients with occlusive vascular disease.Methods: This retrospective, observational, clinical study included a total of 93 patients (61 males, 32 females; mean age 56.9 +/- 7.4 years; range, 43 to 83 years) who underwent femoro-popliteal bypass in which Omniflow II biosynthetic vascular grafts were used due to peripheral arterial disease. The patients were divided into two groups: 62 patients undergoing femoro-popliteal above-knee bypass and 31 patients undergoing the femoro-popliteal below-knee bypass. We evaluated preoperative clinical characteristics, postoperative graft patency rates, and other clinical results.Results: The mean follow-up was 44.9 +/- 18.8 months in the femoropopliteal above-knee bypass group and 47.3 +/- 22.3 months in the femoro-popliteal below-knee bypass group (p=0.302). The cumulative primary graft patency rates of the femoro-popliteal above-knee bypass and femoro-popliteal below-knee bypass groups at three, four, and five years were 98%, 95% and 78% and 86%, 75% and 45%, respectively (log-rank; p=0.312). The cumulative assisted graft patency rates of the femoro-popliteal above-knee bypass and femoro-popliteal below-knee bypass groups at five years were 87.9% and 65.3%, respectively (log-rank; p=0.530).Conclusion: The Omniflow II biosynthetic vascular graft is suitable for above- and below-knee femoro-popliteal bypass procedures. These grafts may be prefered due to high patency rates, low incidence of aneursym formations, and infections