$15,000 is certainly a lot of money for a poor man to turn down, especially if it is includes the possibility of getting his family over. Plus, this way the traffickers avoid getting caught themselves. They get the money from the passengers and then disappear and let people like this man holding the bag.
Trafficking gang paid me to pilot 'ghost ship’, says refugee
Syrian tells Italian police he was paid by smugglers to be 'captain' of Blue Sky
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The Blue Sky M cargo ship, which was carrying an estimated 900 migrants, at the Gallipoli harbour, southern Italy Photo: REUTERS
By Colin Freeman
10:35PM GMT 04 Jan 2015
A Syrian asylum-seeker who piloted nearly 770 illegal migrants on board a cargo ship to Italy has described how he was appointed as the “captain” of the ship by a trafficking gang.
Sarkas Rani, 36, took charge of the Blue Sky M, one of two large vessels that brought hundreds of asylum seekers from Syria towards Italy’s shores last week. European border officials believe it is part of a new tactic by the trafficking gangs, who acquire the boats on the black market and then simply abandon them once they are close to European shores.
In remarks quoted by La Repubblica, which used transcripts of a police interrogation after Mr Rani was arrested in the Italian port of Gallipoli on New Year’s Eve, he claimed to have been contacted in Turkey by human traffickers who had posted notices on Facebook offering clandestine passage to Europe at £3,500 per time.
When they learned that he had previously worked as a sailor, they offered him free passage if he would pilot the ship himself – saving the trafficking gang the problem of having to make an exit from the boat when it neared European waters.
“They promised me $15,000 and the possibility of sending my entire family over,” Mr Rani said.
Continue reading at:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/italy/11324781/Trafficking-gang
Trafficking gang paid me to pilot 'ghost ship’, says refugee
Syrian tells Italian police he was paid by smugglers to be 'captain' of Blue Sky
13
56
0
0
69
The Blue Sky M cargo ship, which was carrying an estimated 900 migrants, at the Gallipoli harbour, southern Italy Photo: REUTERS
By Colin Freeman
10:35PM GMT 04 Jan 2015
A Syrian asylum-seeker who piloted nearly 770 illegal migrants on board a cargo ship to Italy has described how he was appointed as the “captain” of the ship by a trafficking gang.
Sarkas Rani, 36, took charge of the Blue Sky M, one of two large vessels that brought hundreds of asylum seekers from Syria towards Italy’s shores last week. European border officials believe it is part of a new tactic by the trafficking gangs, who acquire the boats on the black market and then simply abandon them once they are close to European shores.
In remarks quoted by La Repubblica, which used transcripts of a police interrogation after Mr Rani was arrested in the Italian port of Gallipoli on New Year’s Eve, he claimed to have been contacted in Turkey by human traffickers who had posted notices on Facebook offering clandestine passage to Europe at £3,500 per time.
When they learned that he had previously worked as a sailor, they offered him free passage if he would pilot the ship himself – saving the trafficking gang the problem of having to make an exit from the boat when it neared European waters.
“They promised me $15,000 and the possibility of sending my entire family over,” Mr Rani said.
Continue reading at:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/italy/11324781/Trafficking-gang
