Smugglers’ perilous route to Italy

Bidding to bypass Greek shores and avoid possible deterrence, many people smugglers are now heading directly to Italy from Turkey’s Aegean coast, with all the additional perils this entails.

According to the United Nations Refugee Agency, in the first seven months of 2022, a total of 6,468 people arrived on Italian shores directly from Turkey in 83 separate boat trips.

This was almost double the number compared to the same period last year, with 3,295 people arriving on Italian shores from the Turkish coast.

According to estimates for July this year, 58% of those who successfully made this trip were Egyptians and Syrians. They had crossed the Aegean Sea on the dangerous route increasingly preferred by smugglers, also known as “the Calabrian route.”

But the dangers are even greater. A number of the overcrowded vessels, as was the case with three boats that made landfall on the southern Greek island of Kythira last week, have failed to reach their ultimate destination. This either because of engine problems or because of a lack of sufficient navigation knowledge of the part of the people designated as expendable helmsmen by smuggling networks. As a result, many vessels run aground or sink before they have covered half the distance.

Lawyer Alexandros Georgoulis, who has handled cases of smuggled migrants, bemoans that the real perpetrators of trafficking, the heads and intermediaries of the circuits in Turkey, escape arrest, even though in several cases witnesses have divulged information that could be used.

In March this year, 101 people were rescued from a sailboat in Paros. Three skippers were arrested, with one of them giving an accurate description of one of the Turkish smugglers, providing a phone number, his real name and Facebook profile. However, it was not clear from the relevant court file whether any further action was ever taken to locate him.