Charity boats rescuing migrants in the Mediterranean Sea are colluding with people-smugglers, an Italian prosecutor said Sunday, stirring up a simmering row over the role of aid groups in Europe’s migrant crisis.
In an interview with Italian daily La Stampa, Sicily-based prosecutor Carmelo Zuccaro said phone calls were being made from Libya to rescue vessels.
Prosecutors were looking into whether smugglers are financing some of the NGOs (non-governmental organisations) as a way of making it easier to guarantee their human cargoes get to Italy, La Stampa reported.
Refugees and migrants are seen on deck of a NGO rescue vessel sailing towards the Italian port of Pozzallo after being rescued off the Libyan coast north of Sabratha, Feb. 19, 2017. /VCG Photo
The EU border agency Frontex recently described NGO activities off Libya as tantamount to providing a “taxi” service to Europe.
Organizations involved in rescue operations, including long-established groups Doctors without Borders and Save the Children and newly-established ones, have rejected accusations of collusion, saying their only mission is to save lives.
Italy is the main route for migrants trying to reach Europe.
Almost 1,000 people are thought to have drowned between Libya and Italy this year, according to the UN refugee agency. Nearly 37,000 people have been rescued and brought to Italy over the same period, a surge of more than 40 percent from last year.
"We have evidence that there are direct contacts between certain NGOs and people traffickers in Libya," Zuccaro is quoted as saying to La Stampa.
“We do not yet know if and how we could use this evidence in court, but we are quite certain about what we say; telephone calls from Libya to certain NGOs, lamps that illuminate the route to these organizations’ boats, boats that suddenly turn off their (locating) transponders, are ascertained facts.”
