Smugglers offer luxury passage for migrants, if they can pay

The Hamilton Spectator ^ | May 27, 2017 | Gaia Pianigiani and Lorenzo Tondo, The New York Times

[2ndDivisionVet]

AVOLA, Sicily — It was a far cry from the rotting fishing boats and overstuffed dinghies that carry so many thousands of migrants precariously to Italian shores.

The family of six had paid about $96,000 (all figures US) to travel from Afghanistan to Turkey. The last leg of their journey, a cramped week's sail through the Aegean and Mediterranean seas aboard a cerulean 50-foot yacht, the Polina, piloted by three Ukrainian skippers, cost $7,000 a head. It dropped them in Sicily in relative style.

As migrants go, this was luxury class.

It was not the first time that Carlo Parini, the police chief inspector against illegal immigration in the southwestern port city of Syracuse, who met the family in April and recounted their story, had seen such a thing.

Since the beginning of the year, the Sicilian authorities have registered 125 migrants who have arrived on yachts and sailboats, mostly piloted by Ukrainian skippers, a lucrative and growing trend.

"It is likely that the organization is made up of Turks who use professional Ukrainian skippers, traditionally skilled, for the crossing," said Francesco Paolo Giordano, the chief prosecutor in Syracuse, who is in charge of the investigations. "But it is still too early to say."

Since the European Union cut a deal with Ankara in 2016, the numbers of refugees and migrants leaving Turkey in flimsy inflatable boats for the short passage to Greece have dropped sharply....

[2ndDivisionVet]

No matter what happens, a human will find a way to make a buck off of it.

[Lurkinanloomin]

These are not “poor refugees”.
Send them back.
Others won’t be wasting their money after that.

[tbw2]

There are lots of Greeks hard up for money, and they’ve long had a strong shipping industry. Wouldn’t be surprised if some of their yachts were being used for this.
Ditto for the Sicilian mob making money.