http://www.thelocal.it/20140702/people-smugglers-blames-migrants-for-their-tragic-fate
People smugglers blame migrants for tragic fate
Published: 02 Jul 2014 11:40 GMT+02:00
Updated: 02 Jul 2014 11:40 GMT+02:00
<
http://www.thelocal.it/page/view/tag/>*Human traffickers involved in a
October shipwreck off the coast of Italy, which left 366 people dead,
blamed the migrants for the tragedy "because they wanted to leave in great
numbers."*
Police on Tuesday issued nine arrest warrants for suspected human
traffickers, accused of being involved in the October 3rd disaster.
The breakthrough came after months of investigation, during which police
wiretapped the suspects discussing the death of hundreds of their
passengers.
In a police video of the recorded conversations, a trafficker named as John
tells another gang member, Ermies, not to "cry over spilt milk".
"You must concentrate on your work and don't think about what people
say...It's their [the migrants'] fault because they wanted to leave in
great numbers," he was heard saying.
A total of 366 people, many fleeing Eritrea and Somalia, died when the
overcrowded boat they were travelling in sank close to the southern Italian
island of Lampedusa.
Later on in the conversation, dated October 31st, Ermies laments to John
about the international attention the shipwreck attracted.
"A lot of other people have departed with other organizers, have never
arrived at their destination and become fish food and no-one's spoken about
them," he said.
Following the shipwreck José Manuel Barroso, president of the European
Commission, flew to Lampedusa along with other politicians including Enrico
Letta, then the Italian prime minister. The national government also upped
efforts to save migrants by launching its "Mare Nostrum" ("Our Sea")
operation in the Mediterranean.
In the wiretaps, the accused traffickers also apportion blame to "destiny"
rather than their own criminal organization.
"What happened depended only on destiny," a man named as Alex says, while
John in a later conversation also describes the migrants' deaths as "their
destiny".
The people smugglers do, however, discuss the practicalities of what went
wrong.
Alex names "two mistakes" made by a fellow trafficker on board: "the first
was to throw away the satellite and the second was to light a fire without
warning."
The overcrowded boat is thought to have capsized after one of the smugglers
lit a fire on board to alert the Italian coast guard to their whereabouts,
sparking panic among the hundreds of passengers.
John has another theory: "What went wrong is the fact that, on the boat,
there were people who were there against their will...that were sold to the
Somali that tortured and raped the women."
One Somali man was arrested in Lampedusa following the shipwreck and faces
charges of raping Eritrean passengers. In the recorded conversations,
Ermies also refers to the practice of migrants being kidnapped and held to
ransom.
The recordings also give away greater detail about the workings of the
trafficking gangs, which often charge migrants over EURO 1,000 for the
dangerous journey from Libya to Italy.
"In my opinion more caution is needed, not putting more than 250 people on
the same boat," suggests John, who also discussed established norms such as
when to depart and to ignore "complaints of the migrants".
Received on Wed Jul 02 2014 - 08:29:58 EDT