Refugees and immigrants from Turkey to Italy

Arrivals to Italy during the holidays not only do not stop, but traffickers are increasingly using new routes from Bodrum or Cesme.

From Christmas Eve until the 27th of the month, 1,100 immigrants and refugees from Turkey arrived in the region of Puglia and Calabria in Lower Italy. Eleven fishing boats, sailboats and other types of boats carried them. Rescue operations were carried out mainly in Santa Maria Di Leuca of Puglia and Izola Capo Ritsuto of Calabria. In fact, two Turkish traffickers were arrested in this area.

And the concern in Italy is growing. In addition to the continuous flows from Libya, now the country’s financial police and the port have to deal with these new arrivals. “Proof that the European Union’s agreement with Ankara on curbing migratory flows presents real problems,” many commentators point out.

In fact, in some boats, the men and women of the Italian port find only unaccompanied minors. The slave traders leave before the boat reaches the Italian shores. Children and adolescents are abandoned to their fate without a helmsman and often without fuel.

On alert for the New Year

In total, in the year we are leaving behind, more than 11,000 people boarded boats on the Turkish coast and arrived in Lower Italy. 20% of the total arrivals, ie immigrants and refugees. Their origin is mainly from Afghanistan, but also from Syria, Pakistan, Somalia. Even from Armenia and Turkey itself.

The slave traders usually start from Bodrum or Cesme in western Turkey and try to disembark the “desperate seas” in parts in small bays of Puglia.

It is clear, writes the Italian catholic newspaper Avvenire, that there is also a well-organized support network for slave traders in Italy. The Italian port will be on alert on New Year’s Eve for new rescue operations.

Theodoros Andreadis Siggelakis, Rome

Source: Deutsche Welle