Human traffickers use cargo ships put on autopilot
January 2, 2015
Human traffickers act more brazen and "barbaric", amid reports of the use of
large cargo ships to smuggle hundreds of migrants to Europe.
The ships carrying hundreds of people are abandoned and left apparently on
autopilot to sail towards the Italian coast.
According to reports, the smugglers are acquiring decommissioned cargo
ships, recruit crews, pack the ship with migrants and then abandon them at
sea, telling them to call the rescue services.
Vincent Cochetel, Director of the UNHCR Europe Bureau, said on Friday that
the use of larger cargo ships is a new trend and part of an ongoing and
worrying situation that can no longer be ignored by European governments.
He called for concerted action to fight human trafficking in the
Mediterranean Sea and thanked the Italian authorities for their response in
regards to the latest refugee arrivals.
Cochetel expressed concerns over the phasing out of the Italian Mare Nostrum
operation without a similar European search-and-rescue operation in place
to replace it.
More than 170,000 people trying to reach Europe have been plucked from the
sea by Italian rescuers in the past 14 months.
But hundreds, and possibly thousands, have perished trying to make the
crossing.