Mystery mega yacht impounded by Italian authorities

Yahoo – AFP, May 6, 2022 

'Scheherazade' worth an estimated $700 million, is the subject of a probe
into its ownership by Italy's financial police (AFP/Federico SCOPPA)

The Italian authorities on Friday impounded a mega yacht at the centre of a mystery over its ownership as speculation swirled it might even belong to the Russian president. 

"Scheherazade", worth an estimated $700 million, has been the subject of a probe into its ownership by Italy's financial police. 

The Italian probe has helped "establish significant economic and business links between the person who officially possesses the Scheherazade and eminent people in the Russian government," as well as Russian figures sanctioned by the West following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the Italian ministry of economy and finance said in a statement. 

Following the probe, "the minister of Economy and Finance, Daniele Franco, has signed a decree impounding" the yacht, the statement added. 

It had been berthed for several months for maintenance work at a shipyard at the Marina di Carrara, within the western seaside town of Massa. 

But the yacht was back on the water and seemed about to set sail on Friday, an AFP photographer said before the Italian government statement was issued. 

The 140-metre yacht features two helipads, a swimming pool and a movie theatre,
according to the SuperYachtFan website (AFP/Federico SCOPPA)

But the mystery remains unresolved: who does "Scheherazade" belong to? A Russian oligarch? Vladimir Putin? 

Built by Germany's Luerssen in 2020, the 140-metre yacht features two helipads, a swimming pool and a movie theatre, according to the SuperYachtFan website, which researches yachts and their owners. 

Italian police had said they were doing their best to identify the owner. 

"It's not always easy to attribute ownership" of a yacht, a source close to the Italian probe told AFP in late March. 

The same source said earlier Friday there was "nothing new" in the investigation. 

Researchers at the anti-corruption foundation of Russian dissident Alexei Navalny link the yacht to Putin. 

They cited a crew list in their possession that included several members of Russia's federal protective service, charged with Putin's security. 

But the Italian Sea Group said in a statement the yacht was "not attributable to the property of Russian President Vladimir Putin". 

The shipyard's owner said its assessment was based on "the documentation in its possession and following the findings of the checks carried out by the relevant authorities".

Dutch superyacht yards set new records for market value and share

DutchNews, May 17, 2018

Like superyachts themselves, the Dutch share of the superyacht building industry keeps getting bigger. The Holland Yachting Group says the Dutch saw their market share in the total value of global superyacht deliveries rise by 7.6% to almost 30% in 2017. 

With 23 new orders on the books, there is much more to come in the years ahead, the group said. ‘In essence, the Dutch are selling more superyachts at a higher total value, while also steadily increasing their market share over the past five years’. 

The Dutch yachtbuilding industry defines a superyacht as being over 30 metres in length. 

The 21 deliveries of boats over 30 metres made in 2017 were made by 10 different yards. The superyachts concerned had a total value of €1.19bn, which translates into an average price of €57m per superyacht, an increase of almost 10%. 

It is also the highest total value recorded to date, Holland Yachting Group said. 

Germany, Italy and the Netherlands – in no particular order – are the world’s leading superyacht builders. Germany specialises in larger yachts, Italy in series production, while the Netherlands specialises in custom-built yachts in the 24 to 70 metre sector.

Migrant rescuers, island mayor win UNESCO peace prize

Yahoo – AFP, Ella IDE, April 19, 2017

Migrants are rescued off the coast of Libya by SOS Mediterranee's Aquarius
vessel in May 2016 (AFP Photo/GABRIEL BOUYS)

Rome (AFP) - UNESCO awarded its prestigious peace prize on Wednesday to migrant rescue association SOS Mediterranee and the mayor of Lampedusa, the tiny Italian island on the frontline of the refugee crisis.

The Felix Houphouet-Boigny Peace Prize goes to the European NGO and mayor Giuseppina Nicolini "for their work to save the lives of refugees and migrants and welcome them with dignity," the UN cultural body said in a statement.

The plight of migrants constitutes "one of the crucial issues of our day, notably in the Mediterranean where nearly 13,000 men, women and children have perished in shipwrecks since 2013," said acting jury head Joaquim Chissano, former president of Mozambique.

Lampedusa, Italy's most southerly outpost, was the first port of arrival for thousands of migrants setting off from North Africa in the first years of the crisis, which began in 2011 and has developed into the worst since World War II.

SOS Mediterranee, founded in 2015, rescues hundreds of men, women and children each week from flimsy dinghies and boats in the Mediterranean, along with other NGOs.

Nicolini was recognised for "her boundless humanity and unwavering commitment to refugee crisis management and integration in response to the arrival of thousands of refugees on the shores of Lampedusa and elsewhere in Italy".

The mayor of Lampedusa, Giuseppina Nicolini, has been recognised for her

work at the frontline of the refugee crisis (AFP Photo/ANDREAS SOLARO)

'Watery grave'

"I dedicate this prize to all those who did not make it across the sea because they were swallowed up, and also to Gabriele Del Grande," said Nicolini, referring to an Italian journalist arrested in Turkey this month while researching the lives of Syrian refugees.

"He was the first to count the Mediterranean's dead on a website, back when nobody even knew people were dying in the Mediterranean. He is now a prisoner in Turkey," she said, calling on the government to "bring him home".

The jury said SOS Mediterranee's Aquarius vessel, co-run by Doctors Without Borders, had saved more than 11,000 lives since it began search and rescue missions off Lampedusa in early 2016.

"We're so happy to be given this award together with Nicolini. We visited her when we were starting up and she said 'you are crazy but I am with you, because this is what we need after the failures of the EU'," said Sophie Beau, SOS Mediterranee co-founder.

The jury appealed to the international community "to ensure that the Mediterranean sea becomes, once again, a place where solidarity and intercultural dialogue hold sway, and that it ceases to serve as a watery grave".

Private rescue vessels sounded the alarm this weekend over the "unprecedented mass rescues" of people fleeing horrors in conflict-torn Libya, recovering seven bodies including that of an eight-year-old, and warning more migrants risked drowning without EU action.

Close to 37,000 people have been brought to safety in Italy so far this year, a 45 percent increase on the same period in 2016.

Migrants waiting to disembark from the Aquarius which has saved more than

11,000 lives since early 2016, the jury said (AFP Photo/Giovanni ISOLINO)

Solidarity

The EU's border control agency Frontex has accused donor-funded vessels of doing more harm than good by acting "like taxis" off Libya and tempting human traffickers to put as many people as possible out to sea in flimsy vessels.

Italian prosecutors have suggested they may have links with traffickers and in March named SOS Mediterranee's activity as being of interest to investigators, along with other private rescue vessels.

Their charges have been fiercely rejected by the NGOs, with SOS Mediterranee saying Wednesday it had "never, not once" been put in contact with migrants via smugglers.

"European governments need to show more solidarity to the humanitarian organisations that are working on the front line of this humanitarian crisis. Border control is not the solution," said Regina Catrambone, the director of MOAS rescue service.

UNESCO's Felix Houphouet-Boigny Peace Prize, created in 1989 to honour those making a significant contribution to peace, has gone in the past to Nelson Mandela, Israel's Shimon Peres and the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, King Juan Carlos of Spain and former US president Jimmy Carter.

Nemo's garden off Italy offers hope for seabed crops

Yahoo – AFP, Olivier Morin, and Angus MacKinnon in Rome, 1 July 2015

Project coordinator of Nemo's Garden, Gianni Fontanesi, checks condensation

inside immerged Biosphere (AFP Photo/Olivier Morin)

Noli (Italy) (AFP) - In the homeland of pesto, a group of diving enthusiasts have come up with a way of growing basil beneath the sea that could revolutionise crop production in arid coastal areas around the world.

The pungent green herb has long been synonymous with the steep, terraced cliff-sides of Liguria, the northern Italian region known for its spectacular Riviera coastline and for producing one of the world's best-loved pasta sauces.

Those two standout features of the region could now become even more intimately associated thanks to the pioneering efforts of Sergio Gamberini.

A diving nut and specialist in under-water communications, Gamberini has begun growing basil in large plastic spheres anchored to the sea bed 100 metres off shore and eight metres below the surface in an experiment he has dubbed "Nemo's garden".

"The idea came to me because I wanted to create more interaction between the surface and the diving activity," Gamberini told AFPTV.

Having started with a simple plastic ball into which he place a tub with herb seeds planted in compost, he is now in his fourth season of production from an under-water garden comprised of three "biospheres" which he is allowed to keep in the water for three months a year.

Project coordinator of Nemo's Garden, Gianni Fontanesi, checks immerged

Biospheres, in Noli (AFP Photo/Olivier Morin)

"I chose a typical activity of farmers, and I said 'why not bring it under water?'" he said. "I realised that there was an opportunity to create a new site to grow vegetables."

Evaporation ensures humidity between 80 and 90 percent inside the spheres, the condensation provides the necessary moisture and, even well below the waves, there is enough light in this sunny corner of Europe to ensure the plants themselves regenerate their oxygen supply via photosynthesis.

Having proved the system works, Gamberini's challenge now is to prove that it can produce herbs and vegetables in a cost-efficient way.

"I don't know if it will be the future because we have to prove that it can be self-supportable," he said. "If a pound of lettuce (grown underwater) costs too much, it won't have a future."

Parasite-free zone

The primary advantage of underwater growing is the stability of thermal conditions.

"The sea maintains the temperature without a great difference between day and night," said Gianni Fontanesi, who is in charge of running the project.

In late June, at the start of the European summer, the water on the coastal shelf of the northern Mediterranean is 25 degrees C (77 degrees F), while inside the spheres the temperature reaches 29 degrees C.

Ocean Reef CEO Sergio Gamberini, head

 of Nemo's Garden project, pictured in Noli 

(AFP Photo/Olivier Morin)

The plants are thriving in an environment where they are protected from the insects and parasites that would normally be giving a basil grower headaches at this time of year.

The results so far have have been encouraging, with the spheres producing more densely-leafed plants than is usual -- perfect for being ground up with pine nuts, parmesan and olive oil to produce authentic Ligurian pesto.

An experiment with lettuce is already underway and mushrooms, tomatoes, tomatoes and green beans will all be given a go this summer.

"In the longer term, this could be a solution for arid regions next to the sea," said Gamberini, who admits there is still much work to be done to work out how to apply his principles on a larger scale.

But he is not the only one to have faith in his idea: under-water basil was one of the 20 food-related innovations chosen to represent Italy at the ongoing World Expo in Milan which has "Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life" as its theme.

EU ships rescue more than 3,400 migrants from Mediterranean

Italy has said that more than 3,400 migrants have been rescued off the Libyan coast. This comes amid stepped up EU efforts to prevent migrant deaths on the Mediterranean Sea.

Deutsche Welle, 3 May 2015

The Italian coast guard announced early on Sunday that a total of 3,427 people had been rescued from vessels in the Mediterranean Sea over the course of Saturday.

It said a total of 16 ships had been involved in the rescue operations and that the migrants were to be taken to the Italian region of Calabria as well as the islands of Sicily and Lampedusa.

Among the ships involved in the operation were a French naval patrol boat, the Commandant Birot, which has been operating in the region over the past couple of weeks as part of the Triton mission under the command of the European Union's Frontex border security agency.

The Commandant Birot picked up 217 migrants in distress from three separates boats and according to a maritime police statement, two alleged people traffickers were arrested and handed over to the Italian authorities.

The AFP news agency also quoted the Italian coast guard as saying the Italian frigate Bersagliere had rescued 778 migrants on Saturday, while the Italian patrol ship Vega had plucked a further 675 from the sea.

Three people were also drowned when a boat carrying migrants capsized off Egypt's Mediterranean coast. Thirty-one others were rescued and detained, according to Egyptian state media.

Single disaster spurs action

The increased efforts by European countries to rescue migrants fleeing war and poverty in places like war-torn Syria, Libya or sub-Saharan Africa come after a single incident last month in which one migrant boat seeking to make the journey across the Mediterranean to EU territory capsized, killing more than 700 people.

This led EU leaders to convene an emergency summit in Brussels, where they agreed to contribute more funding and equipment to efforts to prevent further loss of life on the Mediterranean. Among the countries that pledged to send more naval vessels to the Mediterranean were Germany, France and Britain.

pfd/bk (dpa, AFP)

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MOAS: 'Migrants do not deserve to die out at sea'

Last year, the private Migrant Offshore Aid Station saved 3,000 migrants in distress at sea. In view of the surge of people trying to reach Europe in rickety boats, MOAS hopes to expand its operations.

Deutsche Welle, 20 April 2015

Life vests being thrown to refugees on boat

DW: How exactly does MOAS operate? Do you get emergency calls?

Martin Xuereb: We operate in two ways: reactive and proactive. Reactive in a sense that normally a boat in distress would contact rescue coordination centers first. If they call us first, we also call and inform the rescue coordination center, and, once they're aware of the boat in distress, they will decide whom to ask to help. If we are close, they would task us. We would go and try and find the boat. We sometimes use drones. Once the boat is located, we inform the rescue coordination center and we'll go close and deploy one of our dinghies with a rescue expert, a doctor, a paramedic and life jackets on board, which goes close to the migrant craft. We go alongside the boat to determine the state of the boat and the first thing we do is give life jackets to everyone. Then we report back on the state of the boat, its size, how many people we think are on the boat - men, women and children - and, if need be, we do the rescue.

Last year, the first boat we assisted was a 12-meter (40-foot) boat with 271 people on board, including over a hundred women and children, and this boat was already taking in water. Luckily, they had a bilge pump, but it was already a boat in distress, so we started the rescue straight away. Once we take people on board, we are constantly in contact with the rescue coordination center, and they tell us where to disembark.  

Martin Xuereb retired from
Malta's military in 2013

Last year we were out at sea for 60 days. This year we set out to sea on May 2, and we'll be at sea for six months this time. This time, we also partnered with Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), because we feel that, once we do the search and the rescue, the people that come on board deserve the best care possible, so MSF will be giving assistance.

The MOAS team saves people no one else seems to care that much about. What happens to them after their rescue?

We focus on saving people at sea. It's not the solution to the migration problem - however, we say if a person dies at sea, then what happened to him before and what will happen after is irrelevant, so, as a foundation, what we do is encourage others to try and solve the problem of migration, tackle the issue of trafficking. The foundation tries to make sure that these people, who see no option but to cross the Mediterranean, do not die while they are out at sea.

Who are the Catrambone family and why are they so committed to helping the refugees - and privately, with their own money?

Christopher and Regina Catrambone - he's American; she's Italian - set up MOAS and funded the operation last year. They feel that people do not deserve to die out at sea. They are entrepreneurs, but they feel the responsibility to helping people in distress lies not solely with the state or the EU. They feel civil society needs to mitigate loss of life at sea, civil society should not be a bystander, and, rather than talk about it, or write about it, they decided to do something about it.

How do you finance the operations?

We are a private entity, so we need support. People have been donating since November last year. Over 50 percent of the donations we have received have come from Germany. We have a MOAS swapsite and a donate button, we're partners with MSF, and the founders, Cristopher and Regina Catrambone, continue to support us. However, we still have a long way to go. We hope we have inspired people, convinced them that migrants do not deserve to die out at sea.

Shouldn't governments and politicians be doing the job you're doing?

Yes. They should shoulder the responsibility, remove politics from search and rescue, and put saving lives at the top of their agenda.

We need to bring all our assets to bear, to come together and find a solution. The European states and governments should take the lead, although civil society and NGOs should be ready to help in this effort.

Martin Xuereb heads MOAS. He's a Maltese native. During his 26-year military career, Xuereb oversaw search and rescue missions as Malta's chief of defense. He has been Malta's representative on the EU Military Committee as well as at the European Defence Agency, the EU Institute for Security Studies, the EU Satellite Centre, and NATO's Partnership for Peace program.

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migrants' desperation.

Fury as 700 feared dead in 'avoidable' Med shipwreck

Yahoo – AFP, Angus MacKinnon, 19 April 2015

In this video grab released by the Italian Coast Guard on April 19, 2015, a 

helicopter and a ship take part in a rescue operation off the coast of Sicily

following a shiprwreck last night (AFP Photo)

Rome (AFP) - More than 700 people are feared to have drowned after an overcrowded boat smuggling them to Europe capsized off Libya, officials said Sunday, prompting demands for the European Union to react to the Mediterranean's deadliest migrant disaster to date.

Italy's coastguard, which was coordinating the search for survivors and bodies, said only 28 people had survived a wreck that triggered fresh calls from Pope Francis and others for European leaders to act over what many saw as an avoidable tragedy.

The UN refuguee agency (UNHCR) said survivors' testimonies suggested there had been around 700 people on board the 20-metre (70-foot) fishing boat when it keeled over in darkness overnight, officials said.

A boat transporting migrants arrives in 

the port of Messina after a rescue

 operation on April 18, 2015 in Sicily

(AFP Photo/Giovanni Isolino)

"It seems we are looking at the worst massacre ever seen in the Mediterranean," UNHCR spokeswoman Carlotta Sami said.

A Bangladeshi survivor who was helicoptered to hospital in Sicily put the numbers on board at 950 and said 200 women and children and nearly 50 children had been among them, according to prosecutors in the city of Catania.

As Italy demanded an emergency summit of European Union leaders, the bloc's foreign ministers tabled talks on the issue for Monday. Anger among NGOs was underlined by Amnesty International, which described the disaster as a predictable "man-made tragedy".

View galleryA boat transporting migrants arrives in the port of …

A boat transporting migrants arrives in the port of Messina after a rescue operation on April 18, 20 …

Coastal authorities in Italy and Malta picked up a distress signal from the stricken vessel around midnight (2200 GMT) on Saturday, when it was still in Libyan waters.

The Italian coastguard instructed a nearby merchant ship to provide assistance and it was when the Portuguese-registered King Jacob arrived at the scene that the fishing boat capsized, most likely as a result of the terrified passengers stampeding to one side in their desperation to get off, the UNHCR's Sami said.

Italian, Maltese and merchant boats scoured the area for survivors but only 24 bodies were recovered. They were due to arrive in Malta on Monday morning while survivors are being taken to Sicily.

Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi said the coastguard would seek to salvage the boat and ensure any corpses recovered from it were given a decent funeral.

EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini, a former Italian foreign minister, called the disaster a stain on the EU's conscience.

A boat transporting migrants arrives in

 the port of Messina after a rescue

 operation on April 18, 2015 in Sicily

(AFP Photo/Giovanni Isolino)

"We have said too many times 'never again'. Now is time for the European Union as such to tackle these tragedies without delay."

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Antonio Guterres, added: "This disaster confirms how urgent it is to restore a robust rescue-at-sea operation and establish credible legal avenues to reach Europe. Otherwise people seeking safety will continue to perish at sea."

Worst tragedy yet

The disaster was the latest in a growing catalogue of mass drownings of migrants attempting to reach Europe on overcrowded, unseaworthy boats run by people smugglers who are able to operate out of Libya with impunity because of the chaos engulfing the north African state.

The deadliest incident prior to Sunday occurred off Malta in September 2014. An estimated 500 migrants drowned in a shipwreck caused by traffickers deliberately ramming the boat in an attempt to force the people on board onto another, smaller vessel.

View galleryMigrants sit in a boat during a rescue operation off …

Migrants sit in a boat during a rescue operation off the coast of Sicily in 2014 (AFP Photo/-)

In October 2013, more than 360 Africans perished when the tiny boat they were crammed onto caught fire within sight of the coast of Lampedusa.

That tragedy was described at the time as a wake-up call to the world but 18 months later there is no sign of a let-up in the numbers attempting the perilous crossing in search of a better life in Europe.

The latest disaster comes after a week in which two other migrant shipwrecks left an estimated 450 people dead.

If the worst fears about Sunday's tragedy are confirmed, it will take the death toll since the start of 2015 to more than 1,600.

Migrants sit in a boat during a rescue operation off the coast of Sicily

in 2014 (AFP Photo)

More than 11,000 other would-be immigrants have been rescued since the middle of last week and current trends suggest last year's total of 170,000 migrants landing in Italy is likely to be exceeded in 2015.

Avoidable deaths?

Pope Francis urged EU leaders to "act decisively and quickly to stop these tragedies from recurring".

Amnesty's John Dalhuisen called Sunday's accident a "man-made tragedy of appalling proportions."

"These latest deaths at sea come as a shock, but not a surprise."

Amnesty is among NGOs calling for the restoration of an Italian navy search-and-rescue operation known as Mare Nostrum which was suspended at the end of last year.

Italy scaled back the mission after failing to persuade its European partners to help meet its operating costs of nine million euros ($9.7 million) a month amid divisions over whether the mission was unintentionally encouraging migrants to attempt the crossing.

Mare Nostrum has been replaced by a much smaller EU-run operation called Triton.

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"Return of the Masters" - Apr 11-12, 2015 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll) - New

EU seeks to deter Mediterranean refugees

The number of asylum applicants to European nations rose by 44 percent last year, with the total reaching 626,000, according to EU statistics. Meanwhile, the EU is planning to intercept refugees in the Mediterranean.

Deutsche Welle, 22 March 2015

According to the European Union's statistics agency, Eurostat, 191,000 more people applied for asylum in European countries in 2014 than the previous year, with the number of Syrian asylum applicants rising to 122,800 from 50,000 in 2013.

It also said that many of these applicants sought asylum in Germany, with 32 percent of the total number, followed by Sweden with 13 percent, then Italy and France with 10 percent, and Hungary with 7 percent.

"It should be noted that these five member states registered different trends last year," Eurostat added.

Italy has been most concerned with scores of migrants coming to its borders by boats across the Mediterranean, mainly from Libya.

EU sea mission braces for migrants

With summer around the corner, a record number of refugees are expected to arrive in Europe by sea, especially traveling from Libya to Italy. The EU's largest border mission, Triton, conducted exercises off the eastern coast of Sicily earlier this week to repel the wave of refugees coming towards Europe.

Meanwhile, Egypt and Tunisia have offered help to the EU in trapping refugees on the Mediterranean Sea. According to Der Spiegel magazine, the two countries have struck an agreement with Germany and other major EU countries in this regard.

"Third countries can intervene more quickly and effectively due to their geographical proximity" to rescue refugees and prevent humanitarian tragedies, the magazine quoted a source as saying.

According to the reports, the Egyptian and Tunisian naval forces would bring migrants to "their own ports" on the North African coast instead of sending them back to their home countries.

Greens MEP Ska Keller told Der Spiegel that the EU states did not want to accept their responsibility in the refugee crisis, and that Egypt and Tunisia were not safe for the refugees.

Italy and other member states plan to outsource rescue at sea in order to keep #refugees away http://t.co/RyGRyuCmK3
— Ska Keller (@SkaKeller) 21 maart 2015

A number of human rights organizations, including the United Nations, have criticized the EU countries for not taking in enough refugees.

(shs/msh (AFP, Reuters)

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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Migrant ship Blue Sky M arrives in Italy

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The Ezadeen off Crotone on Italy's heel. Photograph: AFP/

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'Ghost ship' migrants arrive safety in Italy

'Ghost ship' migrants arrive safely in Italy

Four perish and one arrested after migrant cargo ship lands in Italy

Italian authorities have begun investigating what happened to a cargo ship intercepted with 900 migrants on board and no crew. At least four migrants have died, after apparently trying to escape to Europe from Syria.

Deutsche Welle, 31 Dec 2014

It was a disaster narrowly averted, according to the Italian Navy on Wednesday, that it intercepted a cargo ship with 900, mostly Syrian, refugees on board before the vessel completed its collision course with the rocky shoreline.

News agency Reuters, quoting an Italian Red Cross spokeswoman, said at least four of the migrants had died, and that one woman had gone into labor as the passengers began to be brought ashore in the southwestern Italian town of Gallipoli.

Having got into difficulties after heading up the rescue mission for the Norman Atlantic ferry disaster, the Moldovan-flagged Blue Sky M dispatched a distress signal on Tuesday, prompting Italy's coast guard to send helicopters.

A 'race against the clock'

Six officers boarded the ship, where they found no crew, but an engine locked on a course heading straight for the coast of Puglia, which is mostly rocks and cliffs. After some frantic moments on the bridge, the officers were able to unlock the engine and bring the boat under control just five miles (eight kilometers) from the mainland. They then guided the ship into the port of Gallipoli.

"It was a real race against the clock, " said coast guard spokesman Filippo Marini, adding that it was "a difficult and delicate operation, but they managed to do it." The coast guard's official Twitter account declared that a "massacre" had been avoided.

The Greek Coast Guard originally responded to the distress call, but after a very cursory check, allowed the Blue Sky M to continue on its way near the island of Corfu.

It is believed that the crew were human traffickers, who are known to jump ship when they suspect they will be intercepted by police or military. The origin and the final destination of the ship are still unknown as the Italian authorities begin the process of identifying the refugees, who are now being housed in public buildings.

One man suspected to have been involved with the traffickers was arrested in Gallipoli, according to Reuters.

The Italian Coast Guard has vast experience in rescuing scores of people fleeing conflict in their homeland via the Mediterranean Sea. More than 170,000 people have landed on Italy's shore in 2014 alone, and hundreds if not thousands more have perished in their attempt to make the crossing. That number is likely to increase as the conflicts in Libya and Syria show no sign of stopping.

es/tj (AFP, Reuters)

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