Common Denominator

What do meat, drugs and refugees have in common?

All three are subject to being smuggled into Britain (and elsewhere no doubt). The Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee (EFRA) recently reported the quantity of illicit meat discovered on its way through Dover had risen from 13 tonnes between January and April 2023 to 70 tonnes for the same period in 2025.

The twin concern is that foot and mouth disease could easily be imported this way, and lack of quality control threatens public health via human consumption.

Both drugs and (especially at the moment) refugees being smuggled is a frequent media item.

The real common denominator is, of course, profit. Smuggling is an entrepreneurial activity, economically motivated. Illegality is merely an obstacle to be circumvented. It is a capitalist enterprise centred on financial return on dealing in commodities.

People are readily reduced to being commodities by dint of becoming refugees seeking non-legal routes to asylum.

National borders serve to provide a context for exploitation.

By sea or by air

Lines drawn on maps prove nothing

Crossed by bottom lines

 D. A.