The guarantee of being picked up by NGO boats is being promoted by people smugglers on social media and is allowing criminal gangs to use less seaworthy vessels and charge more money…
Pro-refugee rescue boats operating off the Italian coast are only exacerbating Europe’s migration crisis and are being used by people smugglers to guarantee success, a report by the Italian intelligence services has claimed.
In its annual report to the Italian parliament on Tuesday, Italy’s intelligence services warned the Ionian Sea may well become the new route of choice for people smugglers, indicating an increase in the number of boats leaving Turkey’s east coast destined for Italy.
“There is an increase in migratory flows from the eastern Mediterranean, leaving mainly from Turkey towards the coasts of Calabria, Puglia and Sicily by mainly Kurdish and Pakistani migrants, marking a rise in trafficking as well as the use, which has become practice, of the web and social networks by the same groups to advertise their trips and related services,” the report said.
Italian intelligence told lawmakers how the presence of NGO ships operating off Italy’s coast is “often publicized on social networks by facilitators of irregular migration as a guarantee of a safer journey to Europe.”
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