The FBI says the smugglers often threaten their victims and make it difficult for them to pay off their debts.
VOA: standard.2010.05.24
The IMF retorts that it might take 20 years for Europe to payoffthe government debt built up during the 2008 financial crisis, global recession, and recovery, recalling that it took that long to payoffthedebts Europe ran up during World War II without unduly creating hardships on the population.
This is because countries tend not to actually payoff their debts: they hope that the economy will grow faster than the debt and so will become less important but they very rarely actually payoffthe old debts.
In the example above, paying the lowest balance works because it allows you to payoff one of thedebts sooner, which helps keep you motivated to stay on track.