Anti-mafia investigators in
Palermo said Wednesday that armed groups in Libya have been
behind some of the human trafficking that has seen dangerous and
sometimes deadly migrant crossings in small boats to Italy from
North Africa.
The purpose of the trafficking was to raise funds for the
Libyan groups, investigators said.
Earlier this month, the UNHCR said that already this year
some 470 migrants have died in the Mediterranean compared to
just 15 in the same period in 2014 as more people attempt the
risky voyage.
Some observers say that the trips have been made much more
dangerous by organized human traffickers who crowd large numbers
of migrants onto tiny boats and rafts, confident that European
rescuers will find them.
It is believed the traffickers even contact EU agencies to
alert them to migrants they have abandoned in the sea.
Italy's Mare Nostrum rescue program was born of two migrant
disasters in 2013 but was replaced in November 2014 by the EU's
Triton programme.
However, that is widely seen as not up to the task of
saving all migrants.
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