Traffickers grossed over $1.0 mn on single 'ghost ship': IOM

Yahoo – AFP, January 3, 2015

Traffickers grossed over $1.0 mn on single ghost ship : IOM

Geneva (AFP) - People smugglers likely raked in more than $1.0 million from the hundreds of desperate migrants crammed into just one of the "ghost ships" abandoned off the coast of Italy this week, the International Organization for Migration said Friday.

"Our reports are of payments of $1,000 to 2,000 per person leaving Syria and attempting to sail from Turkey," IOM spokesman Joel Millman told AFP.

That means that traffickers likely took well above $1.0 million on each of the large, crewless ships crowded with migrants intercepted off Italy in recent days, he said.

That is "enough revenue to pay for a disposable craft, crew, vessels to evacuate the crew and, presumably, make any bribe payments that might have been useful in furthering the scheme," Millman added.

Italian sailors on Friday managed to take control of a crewless merchant ship drifting in rough seas with 450 migrants on board.

That was the second in two days after the Moldovan-registered Blue Sky M ship was abandoned Wednesday by smugglers who set it on autopilot toward Italy's rocky shores with nearly 800 migrants aboard.

More than 170,000 people have been rescued by Italy in the last 14 months and hundreds, possibly thousands, have perished trying to make the crossing.

Millman said the smugglers have recently begun using large cargo ships, rather than smaller boats, as well as turned to moving more "homogenous" groups of passengers, with the Blue Sky M filled almost exclusively with Syrians.

The UN refugee agency also voiced concern Friday at the move towards using large freighters and called on European governments to do more to help Italy respond to flood of migrants landing on its shores.

"We need urgent European concerted action in the Mediterranean Sea, increasing efforts to rescue people at sea and stepping up efforts to provide legal alternatives to dangerous voyages," Vincent Cochetel, head of UNHCR's European bureau, said in a statement.

But with entire villages and towns frantically trying to escape the bloody civil war in Syria, traffickers have found a particularly lucrative niche, Miller said.

The smugglers, Millman warned, could be "getting used to handling a flow of migrants they can predict will run into the thousands of individuals every month."

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Meet the American Couple Saving Thousands Trying to Get to Europe

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Illegal immigrants are escorted by the officers of Turkey's Coast Guard Mediterranean
 Region Command as they arrive in Mersin, Turkey on Dec. 6, 2014. (Anadolu
Agency/Getty Images)

Christopher Catrambone and his wife have spent $7.5 million of their own money rescuing migrants

At first glance, there appears to be little in common between U.S. multi-millionaire Christopher Catrambone and the refugees risking death to cross the Mediterranean Sea. The businessman’s family live in comfort in Malta and take holidays on luxury yachts; the refugees have left their homes and they sail on dilapidated boats.

But rewind a few generations and it was Catrambone’s relatives making sea journeys from Italy and Ireland to seek a better life in the United States. Then when Hurricane Katrina struck Louisiana in 2005 and destroyed Catrambone’s home, he fled the devastation and relocated to Europe. “I myself was a displaced person,” he says, “a Katrina refugee.”

In the summer of 2014, Catrambone and his wife Regina channelled that empathy – and $7.5m of the family’s personal wealth – into an extraordinary mission to launch the world’s first private search and rescue operation. The aim of the Migrant Offshore Aid Station (MOAS) was to locate the flimsy vessels overloaded with men, woman and children trying to reach sanctuary in Europe, and save the lives of the passengers if they were in danger.

“We’re not here to save the world, we’re here to help people who are in desperate need,” says Catrambone, whose fortune comes from a business offering services to companies in conflict zones. “We leveraged nearly 50% of our savings on this project because it was that important to us. ”Now they are appealing for the public’s help to keep the operation going. Global conflicts have forced record numbers of people on perilous voyages to Europe, but rich nations have scaled back operations to save them – a situation Catrambone finds astonishing. “We’re talking about our own loss of human dignity as a society,” he says. “We ignore people dying at sea – you cannot ignore that.”

Catrambone’s Phoenix I set sail on the Mediterranean on August 25th, with the 40-meter ship carrying two remote-piloted aircraft, two inflatable boats and a crew of technical and medical experts. During their 60 days in international waters, MOAS assisted nearly 3,000 people in jeopardy at sea. While an impressive figure, that’s still just a small proportion of the 207,000 people the U.N. refugee agency estimates set sail on clandestine voyages in the Mediterranean this year. That figure dwarfs the previous record of 70,000 people who attempted the voyage in 2011, after the Arab Spring sent the first wave of asylum-seekers towards Europe.

Now, the conflict in Syria has created a refugee community of three million people, many who want to find a more stable future outside the overcrowded camps in Turkey, Lebanon and Syria. They join the tens of thousands of economic migrants trying to escape poverty, and other men, women and children seeking asylum from conflict and persecution in countries like Iraq, Somalia and Eritrea. Most leave from Libya, with human traffickers arranging passage on ramshackle boats. It is an extraordinary risk for families: this year, the U.N. estimates that 3,419 migrants died in Mediterranean – that is approximately one out of every 60 people who attempt the journey.

Catrambone has personal experience of the world’s war zones: his company, Tangiers Group, offers insurance, medical services and security analysis for firms working in high-risk environments. The company is based in Malta, which Catrambone chose as home after leaving the US because of its favorable business climate and proximity to his wife’s family in Italy.

Migration is a divisive issue in most European countries and politicians are wary of doing anything to encourage immigration even if it means leaving many to drown as they try to get to Europe. Italy launched its ‘Mare Nostrum’ search and rescue operation in 2013 after a migrant boat sunk near the island of Lampedusa, killing more than 300 people. But the Italian government stopped the mission in October, in part due to a lack of support from other European nations. Now a limited E.U. mission called Triton has taken its place, patrolling a smaller area and operating on a third of Mare Nostrum’s budget.

Catrambone wonders if political concerns have also stopped private donors from rallying to his cause. He hoped to run the first 2014 summer mission using his and his wife’s wealth and then seek private donations to cover the $490,000-a-month running costs and launch again in March 2015 when calmer seas tempt migrants to cross the sea to Europe. But appeals to foundations and companies have proved unsuccessful, so Christopher and Regina have launched a crowd-funding effort, raising around $42,000 so far.

Money has come from small donors rather than Catrambone’s fellow millionaires, whose luxury yachts he sees anchored in Malta’s Grand Harbour. “Their daily cost to sit at that marina and to run their crew and their operation would cover us for an entire month,” he says.

Catrambone says they will keep trying to raise money until March but if they don’t meet their target they will scale back their operation to a level they can afford. If they stop using the drones, they could half their costs, he says. Many more thousands of migrants are expected to attempt to cross the Mediterranean Sea in 2015 but there will be far fewer rescuers to help them if their overcrowded and worn-out boats cannot manage the journey.

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New migrant tragedies off Lampedusa spark calls for reform

Deutsche Welle, 12 October 2013

The second migrant tragedy in just over a week in the Strait of Sicily has sharpened calls to allow safe passage for asylum seekers. The most recent accidents have killed at least 400 people.

A week of tragedy in the Mediterranean Sea has prompted calls for action from the European Union to do more to prevent asylum seeker deaths.

"I don't know how many more people need to die at sea before something gets done," Maltese Prime Minister Joseph Muscat said in an interview with the BBC.

"The fact is that, as things stand, we are just building a cemetery within our Mediterranean Sea," he added. "Until now we have encountered statements, words but little more than that." Muscat vowed to join Italy in lobbying for action at the next European Council meeting.

On Friday a migrant boat sunk about 105 kilometers (65 miles) southeast of the island of Lampedusa. Italian and Maltese rescuers found 34 bodies, and rescued more than 200 survivors. The boat was said to have capsized when passengers tried to attract the attention of a passing Maltese aircraft.

Between Thursday and Friday, the Italian coast guard also intervened to help some 85 migrants stranded on a dinghy south of Lampdesua and intercepted a boat with 183 people on board as it approached the island's port.

On October 3, a vessel carrying some 500 people, mostly Eritreans, sunk within sight of the Lampedusa coast. Only 155 people survived, with the provisional death count raised Saturday to 359, after rescuers found the bodies of 20 more victims.

On Saturday, Italian authorities started transporting coffins out of a Lampedusa airport hangar to take last week's dead to mainland Sicily, where Prime Minister Enrico Letta has promised to give them a state funeral.

Urgent calls for reform

With the Italian coast guard bearing the brunt of rescue operations, politicans and rescue officials have spoken out for more support. "Lampedusa cannot manage: Europe must realize this," Lampedusa Mayor Giusi Nicolini told RAI state television.

Francesco Rocca, the president of the Italian Red Cross, called for safe routes for people escaping war and repression: "Urgent measures must be adopted to open humanitarian corridors. There is no time to lose.”

On Saturday, Italian Interior Minister Angelino Alfano echoed the need to crackdown on smugglers: "We need to stop the merchants of death.”

According to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, 32,000 people have arrived in southern Italy and Malta this year alone, about two-thirds of whom have filed requests for asylum. Most migrants come from sub-Saharan Africa, but this year an increased number have arrived from Syria and Egypt.

One step has been taken by the EU to address the growing problem. On Thursday, the European Parliament approved the Eurosur border surveillance system, which aims to reduce the number of undetected migrants to the EU, including those who arrive by boat.

hc/mkg (Reuters, AFP, AP, dpa)

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EP approves Eurosur border surveillance

Deutsche Welle, 10 October 2013

EU lawmakers have approved the Eurosur border surveillance program which aims to help migrants headed to Europe. The vote comes just one week after at least 289 asylum seekers drowned off the coast of Lampedusa.

The European Parliament approved the Eurosur plan on Thursday in Strasbourg.

The European external border surveillance system, Eurosur, aims to reduce the number of undetected illegal migrants to the EU, including those who arrive by boat, and seeks to prevent cross-border crime.

The EU Commission plans to launch the new state-of-the-art surveillance system in December with a budget of 244 million euros ($332 million) between 2014 and 2020.

The program will gather information on boats believed to be carrying illegal migrants, fight trafficking networks and also help save refugees in distress.

The launch of Eurosur will include drones, satellite systems and high resolution cameras.

The approval comes just one week after a boat full of 500 asylum seekers, mostly from Eritrea and Somalia, sunk just off the coast of the Italian island Lampedusa drowning at least 289 people. Only 155 survived.

The October 3 accident is only one of numerous tragedies that have taken place as migrants from the Middle East and Africa cross the sea, often on poorly maintained or makeshift vessels. Over the past 20 years, an estimated 17,000 to 20,000 migrants have died while making the perilous Mediterranean crossing.

On Wednesday a visit by EU commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso to Lamedusa was met with fierce protests.

Some EU lawmakers say the system lacks muscle such as providing for more sea patrols in dangerous waters.

hc/rg (dpa, EPD)

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Former Lampedusa migrant: 'Nobody helped'

Deutsche Welle, 7 October 2013

Abu Kurke of Ethiopia is all too familiar with the dangers of trying to reach the Italian island of Lampedusa by boat from Africa. He told DW his tale of survival - and of the images he hopes to forget.

A blue, double-decker boat overflows with people of African descent as a
military-like ship sits on the water's horizon in the distance.

News of the drowning of more than 300 migrants seeking refuge in Lampedusa, Italy from Africa brought back painful memories to Abu Kurke of Ethiopia. He was one a handful of survivors in a traumatic tale of sea-crossing endurance that ultimately brought him to the Netherlands.

DW: Mr. Kurke, this week must have been very distressing for you. How did you feel when you heard the news about events near Lampedusa?

Abu Kurke: That made me very sad. It was similar to what happened in 2011 - to me and many people who had to die. It's very terrible. How can I tell you? I don't know.

You were only one of nine people to have survived a similar crossing. Where did your journey begin?

I was in Libya - I was in prison. I'd been kicked out of Italy in 2010, and I was in prison for eight months. Then, when I got out of prison, there was a war in Libya. So I was looking for somewhere to go. I took the boat with my friend from Tripoli. It was a small boat, and there were too many people on it - 72 people, with small children, also women. We were going to Italy, but we never reached Italy.

We had many problems on the sea. The wind was very bad - the captain said he couldn't steer well. We received some calls from the Italian Coast Guard, but in the end, nobody helped. A helicopter came with water, and then went away and told us he was coming back to help us. He never came back. We were waiting for that helicopter for six hours.

So there we were, without any food - children on the boat, women. When we'd first seen the helicopter, everyone was happy. We thought, "We will survive." So when it never came back, that was terrible. We were there for two weeks on the sea, without any food. A baby was crying for a week in front of me - the baby died in front of me. I watched that. I still have problems. I still have nightmares, always.

What was the feeling like on the boat? Had people given up, or were you still hopeful you would make it?

Everybody was praying. We'd also received a telephone from the coast guard, but the battery ran out. For many days we saw ships and many fishing boats, and all of them just looked at us when we got close to them - and then they'd run away. We tried to speak with them. We showed them the baby - we showed them we didn't have any oil - we needed food - also, that there were bodies of people in the boats. All the boats ran away from us. No one helped. In the two days after we saw the helicopter, we lost many people.

 An estimated 300 men, women and
 children died on October 3 trying to
reach Europe

The boat washed up in Libya after two weeks. There were 11 of us. When we saw land, we thought it was Italy. Everybody was praying that it was Italy. Only five of us could walk - the other people were exhausted. Military people helped us, but the military also took us to prison.

We were in prison for three days without medical help. One guy died in prison. Another, a woman, died one hour after coming off the sea. Afterwards we went to the Catholic Church in Libya. They helped. I want to say thanks to them, because they saved our lives.

You ultimately reached the Netherlands via Italy. What made you decide to get on another boat after that first traumatic experience?

I was not planning to go again to the sea. I was planning to go to Shousha [a UN refugee camp in Tunisia]. Military people arrested me and other people and put me on the boat. The boat finally arrived in Lampedusa.

How were you received there?

When I reached Lampedusa I was happy. The Italians helped us from the boat. But I left Italy because there are thousands of migrants there. I was looking for medical help.

Knowing all the risks, people continue getting on those boats. Why are they prepared to take this risk?

Most of the immigrants are from Eritrea, from Ethiopia - women and children, dying - families coming. It's because there are political problems. In Ethiopia, thousands of Oromo people are in prison. I am from Oromia [an ethno-political state in central Ethiopia]. Most of the people who die on the boats are from Oromia.

Africa and Europe must help these people to get out of prison and stop these people coming to sea and dying - and not just the sea, but in the Sahara Desert. The problem comes from their own country.

Now that you're in the Netherlands, what do you hope for the future?

I hope freedom will come for my people, in my country. I'm also happy here. I want to live my life in peace.

Key migrant routes to southern Europe

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