Who's Watching the Watchmen?

In the past few days, immigration officials in both Malaysia and the UK have been caught assisting human traffickers in moving victims into their countries.  Immigration officials are poised to be life-savers when it comes to spotting trafficked persons, but they can just as easily switch sides to help the traffickers and their own pocket book. 

In Malaysia, the suspects would allegedly directly hand deported immigrants to human traffickers at the Thai-Malaysian border, instead of depositing them in Thailand.  Each immigration officials would receive about $100 per human they gave to the traffickers.  The deportees would soon find themselves slaves, most often in Thailand's fishing industry. 

In the UK, border officials took bribes from and traded favors with trafficking rings over a number or years.  In some cases, money exchanged hands directly.  In others, the officials and the traffickers formed "mutually beneficial relationships," which allowed them to earn over $1 million a year.  A recent report from the UK states that many traffickers find it "relatively easy" to move their victims through the UK.

Corrupt immigration officials are one of the greatest tools at a trafficker's disposal if he wants to move his victims internationally.  Who knows who many innocent people were handed over to human traffickers because a group of Malaysians and a group of Brits decided to make a few extra bucks?  We trust these officials to put the safety of the citizens of their country and all other countries first.  They are our watchmen, and they break that trust when they use it to traffick human beings.

It begs the question recently asked by Hollywood, and which should be asked by all of us about our public officials, in light of these events: Who's watching the watchmen?

Image from iwatchstuff.com