http://www.lagazzettadelmezzogiorno.it/english/human-smugglers-arrested-after-migrant-boat-arrives-no723223/
Human smugglers arrested after migrant boat arrives
More than 3,500 migrants arrive on Italian shores over weekend
(ANSA) - Pozzallo, June 2 - Police said Monday they arrested five alleged
human smugglers caught as part of the wave of more than 3,500 migrants who
arrived on Italian shores over the past few days. The captain of one of the
migrant ships, carrying about 205 migrants, asked for leniency in exchange
for his confession of piloting the boat that was tracked by a patrol ship
from Malta before it arrived in Sicily Sunday. It was part of a series of
arrivals of migrants from Syria and North Africa in about 11 different
boats found in Italian waters since Friday. The Italian Air Force was
called in to relay many of the migrants from the Sicilian city of Catania
to centres in Rome and Verona, to relieve some of the burden on arrival
centres in Sicily. The arrivals included some 838 migrants rescued from the
sea on Saturday while another vessel carrying 275 people landed on the
southern Italian island of Lampadesua. Another 720 from Libya were ferried
into Pozzallo after they were rescued by Italian authorities working
through the Mare Nostrum (our sea) program, and 147 people arrived in
Catania. Some migrants said they paid first for the journey from Eritrea to
Libya, and again for the voyage from Libya to Italy, which for many
migrants is a stepping stone into the rest of Europe. Italian Interior
Minister Angelino Alfano said last week that almost 40,000 migrants have
arrived already this year, almost as many as the total 43,000 arrivals
reported for all of 2013. "Caution is necessary over estimates on 2014
arrivals but migrant pressure is very high and the trend is growing,"
Alfano said. Most of that pressure lands on Italian shoulders as the
country's southernmost shores, especially the islands of Lampedusa and
Sicily, are the first points of arrival for migrants arriving from the
Middle East and North Africa crowded on to flimsy boats and rafts. Most
migrants "are asking for protection and it is therefore mandatory to
welcome them though this obligation concerns Europe and not a single
country". Alfano called for increased resources for the European Union's
border management agency Frontex, which helps to patrol the southern
borders, and said it should move its headquarters to Italy. This will be a
theme for Italy when it assumes the six-month duty presidency of the
European Union in July. He also urged the international community to do
more to help would-be migrants remain in their homelands. Since the deaths
of some 400 migrants in October in Italian waters in two separate sea
disasters, Italy has established a search-and-rescue program called Mare
Nostrum (our sea) to try to avoid such deaths in future. But critics say
the program only encourages human smugglers, who know their passengers will
be quickly rescued from the seas. The rise in migrants has swamped the
Italian government's system for welcoming and housing newcomers along its
southern shores, but Alfano said a national plan is being put in place "to
distribute immigrants shared by regions, provinces and municipalities".
Received on Mon Jun 02 2014 - 08:26:55 EDT