Sicily prosecutor probes possible NGOs-smuggler 'contacts'

ROME - An investigation of humanitarian groups operating migrant rescue ships in the Mediterranean has turned up evidence of contacts between some nongovernmental organizations and Libyan-based human smugglers, a prosecutor based in Sicily said in comments published on Sunday.

Anti-migrant politicians immediately demanded to know who finances rescue ships run by NGOs.

Catania Chief Prosecutor Carmelo Zuccaro was quoted as saying in an interview with La Stampa newspaper that his office's probe has revealed "evidence that there are direct contacts between some NGOs and human traffickers in Libya".

Several NGOs have operated rescue boats in the Mediterranean just outside Libya's territorial waters.

Humanitarian advocates said that if it weren't for them, countless more migrants would perish at sea.

Under maritime rules involving distressed boats, Italy's coast guard, which coordinates operations in the search-and-rescue zone between Sicily and Libya's territorial waters, frequently calls on private vessels near foundering dinghies or fishing boats crowded with migrants. In the past, nearby cargo ships were called to help. But increasingly an expanding number of NGO vessels are plucking migrants to safety.

Zuccaro didn't specify how the evidence was obtained.

"We don't know if and how to utilize this information in the judicial process, but we're certain enough of what we're saying: (there are) telephone calls from Libya to some NGOs" and other evidence, the prosecutor said.

Compared to the same period in 2016, the number of migrants rescued at sea and brought to Italy so far this year has jumped about 44 percent, to about 36,000.

Zuccaro predicted as many as 250,000 migrants might be rescued at sea this year and taken to Italian ports, if the pace continues.

Populist politicians raised an outcry about what critics have dubbed NGO "taxi services" for migrants.

General election

NGOs are suspected of being "in cahoots with human traffickers", said Luigi Di Maio, a top leader of the populist 5-Star Movement. "We want light shed on this, to know who finances" the NGOs.

Italy is due to hold a general election before next summer, and most polls show the 5-Star Movement has a narrow lead over the ruling center-left Democratic Party. EU border agency Frontex has also criticized the NGOs, saying they make it too easy for smugglers.

Humanitarian rescue boats wait just outside of Libyan territorial waters. Migrants are packed by smugglers onto flimsy rubber boats that struggle to make it to international waters before sinking. "More would die if we weren't there," said Chris Catrambone, who co-founded the MOAS NGO to rescue migrants with his wife Regina.

Last week, Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni praised NGOs for saving migrant lives, but said prosecutors were right to investigate any possible contacts between NGO groups and the Libyan-based smugglers.

(China Daily 04/25/2017 page11)