Escaped migrants ferried to Sicily by Maltese gangs
Karl Stagno-Navarra Criminal organisations operating from St Paul’s Bay and Marsascala have restarted their lucrative clandestine trips with high-powered speedboats, ferrying migrants to the Sicilian coast 60km away for an estimated €1,000 per passenger.
Italian police have confirmed that on at least three occasions during last week and the week before, groups of migrants had been ferried from Malta to the Ragusa coast by high powered boats coming from Malta.
Last week, 13 migrants – 10 of whom were reported to have escaped from the Safi detention centre – were found drenched on the beaches of Scoglitti in Ragusa.
These migrants were in fact intercepted almost a day after their escape from Safi, raising the question of how well organised the escape was, and with what assistance, for them to ‘disappear’ in less than 24 hours. According to preliminary investigations, it transpired that three of the captured migrants told the police in Sicily that they had paid an average of €1,000 each to Maltese men who organised their trip to Sicily by speedboat.
The migrants are now being prepared by the Italian authorities to be sent back to Malta under the Dublin II agreement, that obliges the receiving EU country to send back the intercepted migrant to the country of illegal and unauthorised departure.
The news of the resumption of high powered speed boat trips with migrants from Malta is set to stir up another polemic with Italy, which over the years has insisted on a clampdown in Malta of high powered speed boats, specifically designed to carry migrants and ferry them in as fast as 30 minutes flat from the north of Malta to the southern tip of Sicily.
Equipped with four 500 hp outboard engines, the so-called “cigarette boats” are being designed and constructed in Malta, and have “re-appeared” in some local bays.
These kind of boats had disappeared for some time after a severe police clampdown in 2006, following a row between Malta and Italy when nine Chinese migrants were found drowned off the Sicilian coast, after allegedly having been thrown overboard on the high seas by Maltese criminals who feared the imminent arrival of an Italian patrol boat.
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