Interior Minister Angelino
Alfano said Thursday that 539 human traffickers have been
arrested since May 1 last year.
"This is a great result, demonstrating the effectiveness of
our battle against the merchants of death," said the minister,
adding that most of those arrested on human trafficking charges
were Egyptian and Tunisian.
Alfano spoke on the island of Lampedusa, which lies in the
Strait of Sicily close to the Tunisian coast and is often the
first European landfall for thousands of people paying human
traffickers exorbitant fees and boarding unseaworthy,
overcrowded vessels in a desperate bid to flee war, poverty, and
cruel dictatorships in their African and Middle Eastern
homelands.
"I am here to thank all our forces, who are out there
saving human lives," said Alfano in reference to Italy's Mare
Nostrum migrant search-and-rescue operation involving the Navy,
the Coast Guard, and the merchant marine.
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