NGO Rescue Boats ‘Of Interest’ to Italy’s Migrant Trafficking Probe
Italian investigators have added NGO-run rescue ships in the Mediterranean Sea to a list of “parties of interest” in their investigation into migrant trafficking.
Carmelo Zuccaro, prosecutor in the Sicilian city of Catania, said the aid groups were not under investigation as there was no information they had committed any crimes, but they had come to the attention of the trafficking working group late last year.
“There is an abnormal proliferation of NGOs operating. I’m not talking about the big, prestigious organisations, but all the small ones that seem to have sophisticated hardware, such as drones,” Zuccaro told Agence France-Presse. “That’s expensive, and we’re just looking into who is financing them and why.”
The European Border and Coast Guard Agency, Frontex, said in a leaked report last year that aid groups were aiding people smugglers, an allegation fiercely disputed by the charities. Last week, Frontex tempered the accusation in its risk analysis for 2017 saying all private and state rescue efforts on the Mediterranean risked unintentionally aiding smugglers.
Tens of Thousands Demand Spain Accept More Refugees at Barcelona March
Tens of thousands of people marched from the center of Barcelona to the Mediterranean coast demanding the Spanish government take in more refugees.
They held signs in Catalan reading “Enough Excuses! Take Them in Now!” and “No More Deaths, Open the Borders!”
Police said around 160,000 people joined the march, while organizers Casa Nostra Casa Vostra (Our home is your home) put the figure at 300,000.
In September 2015, Spain pledged to take in around 16,000 refugees from Greece and Italy in two years, and another 1,500 from Turkey and Libya. To date, Spain has resettled just 1,100 refugees.
Teen Asylum Seekers Return to Site of Demolished Calais Camp
Between 300 and 400 asylum seekers, most of them teenagers or young adults, have returned to Calais since authorities demolished the “Jungle” camp last October, a local aid group told Reuters.
Lucie Favry from the Utopia 56 group told the news agency it is difficult to establish an exact number as most are hiding from police. Another NGO worker told Reuters that they were handing out more than 100 meals a day to migrants in Calais.
The local government in Calais declined to confirm the numbers.
A teenager from Sudan, who returned to Calais after the demolition and recently made it to the U.K. by hiding under a coach, said more children were going back to Calais. “We lost hope and decided to try by ourselves to get to the U.K.,” he told the Guardian.
The U.K. Home Office said it would review children’s asylum applications from France after reports of more young asylum seekers returning to Calais. The government closed a scheme to resettle unaccompanied children earlier this month, after 350 children entered the country.
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- Afghanistan Analysts Network: Afghan Exodus: Afghan Asylum Seekers in Europe