People-Smugglers Busted and Brought to Sicily

The Italian government is really cracking down on the trafficking of migrants from Libya across the Mediterranean. Not only are they denying entry to the NGO migrant-ferries, they are intercepting and arresting the people-smugglers before they can return to Libya.

This “hardline” (as the media describe it) policy is guaranteed to inflame the Puir Wee Bairn Syndrome among the media and the chatterati, who treat every migrant as if he were a child, never mind the fact that he has a receding hairline and a full beard. They are adamant that not a single hair on his itty-bitty head be harmed.

Italian Interior Minister Matteo Salvini seems immune to the syndrome, fortunately. He’s doing what needs to be done, which is what the voters elected him to do.

Many thanks to FouseSquawk for the translation, and to Vlad Tepes for the subtitling:

Below are excerpts from three articles (hat tips to Insubria and Reader From Chicago) about a related case, that of the Sea-Watch 3, a vessel which flies a Dutch flag and is owned by a German NGO.

First, from ANSA:

Dutch Should Intervene on Sea-Watch Salvini Tells Conte

UNHCR urges Italy to let rescued migrants land on Lampedusa

(ANSA) — Rome, June 21 — Interior Minister Matteo Salvini on Friday wrote to Premier Giuseppe Conte reiterating his ‘closed ports’ policy and saying that the Netherlands should deal with the Sea-Watch 3, which has been stuck in international waters south of Lampedusa for nine days with 43 rescued migrants aboard.

Salvini, who is also deputy premier and leader of the anti-migrant League party, said “a fresh energetic initiative of sensibilisation” was needed towards the Netherlands, given that the ship, which is run by a German NGO, flies a Dutch flag.

Meanwhile the UNHCR, the UN refugee agency, again urged Italy to let the Sea-Watch migrants land on Lampedusa.

“These desperate people must be disembarked, it is an obligation sanctioned by international norms,” said UNHCR spokesman Babar Baloch.

“Italy has a responsibility to let these people land,” said Baloch.

“None of them must return”, he said, to war-torn Libya which has no internationally recognised ports of safety.

Salvini has vowed that “none of them will land in Italy”.

He reiterated Friday, after the UNHCR appeal, that “the interior ministry decides who gets into Italy”.

From France24:

Italy Holds Netherlands, EU ‘Responsible’ For Migrant Boat

Italy’s hardline interior minister Matteo Salvini said he would hold the Netherlands and the European Union “responsible” for the fate of 42 migrants that Rome has blocked from disembarking at Italian ports for over a week.

The Dutch-flagged rescue boat Sea-Watch 3 has been stuck in the Mediterranean since rescuing 53 migrants drifting in an inflatable raft off the coast of Libya on June 12.

And again, from ANSA:

Send Sea Watch migrants to Netherlands,Germany says Salvini

Interior minister says ‘pirate ship’ should be seized

(ANSA) — Rome, June 24 — Deputy Premier and Interior Minister Matteo Salvini reiterated on Monday that he does not intend to let a group of migrants rescued by a ship run by the Sea-Watch NGO land in Italy. He was commenting after the European Commission called on the EU member states involved in the case to find a solution for the 43 migrants who have been at sea for almost two weeks because a port of safety has not been allocated.

“Does the European Union want to solve the Sea-Watch problem? That’s easy,” said League leader Salvini.

“It’s a Dutch ship, the NGO is German — half of the immigrants should go to Amsterdam, the other half to Berlin.

“Then seize the pirate ship”.

Video transcript:

00:00   We speak now of the illegal [unintelligible] transported to Licata is the mother ship
00:05   intercepted by the Guardia di Finanza. On board were the arrested smugglers.
00:10   Two other traffickers are in custody at Lampedusa, and the ship Sea Watch is still off Lampedusa.
00:15   Our correspondent, Giuseppe Lavenia.
00:18   The Guardia di Finanza agents on the boat of the smugglers.
00:21   It was shortly after six when the boat seized in international waters
00:24   arrived in the port of Licata. The human traffickers come off the boat
00:28   one at a time are taken into custody of military agents.
00:32   They are accused of organizing yet another migrant voyage to Italian coasts.
00:37   Here are the images that incriminate them: the transfer of men, women
00:40   and children occurred 30 nautical miles from Lampedusa.
00:43   There are 81 who passed from the mother ship to a small boat on the open sea.
00:47   at the risk of sinking before touching land.
00:50   No scruples for the traffickers — free of the boat, they couldn’t care less about the fate
00:54   of those people they have transported to this point. The only objective is to escape
00:58   to return to Libya. The patrol boats of the Guardia intercept them.
01:03   In the caserne this morning, they stated that they were Libyan and Egyptian.
01:07   They are in custody. Seven have to answer for complicity in illegal immigration.
01:13   Two other suspected smugglers were identified by the Flying Squad (National Police) of Agrigento.
01:18   According to the prosecutor, they are believed responsible
01:21   for another disembarkation that occurred in the past few days.
01:24   But remaining blocked at the limit of our territorial waters is the ship,
01:28   Sea Watch, the NGO boat prohibited from entry
01:31   by the Viminale (Ministry of Interior). On board the volunteers continue to ask for permission
01:35   from a port to unload the migrants rescued at sea.
01:39   Today a man was evacuated by the Coast Guard due to a worsening of his condition.
 

9 thoughts on “People-Smugglers Busted and Brought to Sicily

  1. These are invaders and their ships should be sunk. The sooner this is done the sooner the invasion will end.

    • All craft landing in Italy with the customers of people smugglers on board should be confiscated and scuttled, particularly those of the NGOs. They can only bring one boatload per boat, and they’d soon run out of boats, or the will to take the risk.

  2. Perhaps a bit drastic as a first measure. I vote for a naval blockade of the african coast. Any ship trying to run it gets a warning shot then all bets are off. If the migrants want to dangle their children over the sides to force the issue, I say, let them. Their children (maybe), their responsibilities. Not anyone else’s. If they then really drop the victim in the water, what does that say about the kind of people they are? I guess I feel that if they don’t care about their own children, why should I?
    It is an invasion and you do not let invaders in. As for no safe ports in Libya, there will never be safe ports.
    I remember Lampedusa many years ago. Safe, clean, beautiful beaches, quiet…nice people. I sorrow to think how that has changed.

    • I know the West is (mostly) not responsible for the “[sump] countries” people want to leave, and I know overseas military adventures often end in disaster (not least because of the failure to follow through, unlike after WW2- note that there are still US troops in Germany and Japan).

      However, Gaddafi warned Tony Blair that this would happen if we brought him down, and we did, and it did, so we do have a responsibility, not least to the people of Europe, to do something, which I’m afraid would involve an invasion of Libya, and the setting up of an enclave where both genuine refugees and economic migrants could be processed humanely; and it would need to be open-ended. There is a precedent, not altogether successful: https://www.prpchannel.com/evidenza-2/non-tutti-sanno-che-in-niger/ (you may need to scroll down for a translation), but this one seems not to be backed by military force.

      I’m aware of the difficulties; unlike Australia’s (somewhat) similar efforts, the “safe space”, or whatever you call it, would likely be subject to terrorist attacks, and maybe the objections of the Libyan government if they ever agree on one! (though we could always threaten to leave and let them deal with it.) It would ask a lot of the (mostly) young people in what I imagine would be the militaries of some of the NATO countries (the UN absolutely should not be involved).

      You may think me naive, even idealistic, but short of Fergus Boon’s, in my view callous, suggestion above, does anyone have a better idea?

      • Would it not be simpler just to stop funding, seize and close all of these humanitarian NGOs ? If it was not for them, there would be no problems and no forced migrations. Most of these NGOs receive funds by international organizations like ECHR, UNCHR and the like, but also direct funds from government (for example italy has given lots of (taxpayers) money to them with the previous governments), so they are just a political mean. Today there are still some western governments in charge which are continueing with this scam. That is why Salvini asked Germany and the Netherlands, because of their flags on the ship and with european crew and because the NGO is registered in their countries, to take care of the load of consequences of their criminal smuggling.

        Some weeks ago 2 ukrainians traffickers were arrested for smuggling people across the mediterrean sea on a sail boat, route from turkey to italy !
        https://www.linkiesta.it/it/article/2019/06/12/rotta-est-immigrazione-turchia-scafisti-ucraini/42495/

        This is not even a news, because it already happened last year (2018), always departed from turkey, always with a sail boat and always the same ukrainian crew.
        https://www.repubblica.it/cronaca/2018/07/13/news/migranti_barca_a_vela-201633643/?refresh_ce

        But these criminals have been arrested in Italy. Why ? Because also Ukraine is not protecting these criminals, claiming they are social justice warriors, or that they are saving lives in the mediterrean sea.

        NGOs in fact are GOs, and they are still funded and protected by many western countries. Until these countries do not revise/reform their politics, we have to deal with this scam.

        • Have you ever heard of a famous billionaire “philanthropist” called Gregory Soros who sponsors marxists, abortionists, sexual deviants, drug smugglers and people smugglers throughout the world?
          Look him up – he spends as much as most governments on bringing about the New world order.

  3. @Mark: The West has already done WAY too much. This should have been stopped many years ago. We do NOT owe these people anything. We gave and continue to give untold billions of dollars every year, send medical personnnel & supplies, humanitarian workers for what now ? More than 100 years. Enough. Mother Nature took care of their non-stop population. Then White Men decided to help and stopped that process. Their pop is set to Double from it was just a few years ago to 2035 !!! Half of Africa is Moslem. Whether or not they are of that 50 % or the other 50 % that are not, I do not care. The only obligation we have is to Whites who are the TRUE threatened minority. Will we wait till we’re like South Africa ? Think it can’t happen here ? Wake up. Blacks write every day about killing Whites including children and they already do. Check out Colin Flaherty, the Original Great Dolemite, PghMD. I can give you more names if needed. After just a month of videos, you’ll change your mind because the situation is absolutely dire. There is no way we can co-exist peacefully. All our countries have dramatically changed and we don’t feel at home anymore.

    • Ignoring some of your views, do you have a better, ie practical solution, that doesn’t involve mass drownings or other deaths of civilians?

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