Here come the mob: How the mafia are moving in on aid money being poured in to deal with Europe's migrant crisis
* Mob is attracted by hundreds of millions in EU cash that has been given to Rome
* From fund, those sheltering and feeding migrants receive £31 per day per person
* Mafia, say Italian prosecutors, decided it was too good an opportunity to ignore
Mail Online
By Ian Gallagher In Palermo
8 July 2017
On one side, there are the ruthless criminal gangs making huge sums ferrying people across the Mediterranean – and now it emerges that the Mafia is exploiting the other end of the operation, attracted by the hundreds of millions in EU cash that has been given to Rome.
From this fund, including money from British taxpayers, those sheltering and feeding migrants receive £31 per day per person. Mainly it goes to hoteliers, or those owning buildings equipped to house large numbers.
Never slow to ‘wet their beaks’, the mob, according to prosecutors, decided it was too good an opportunity to ignore.
‘It is this money that has been made available to help the migrants that is attracting either the Mafia or people close to them,’ a senior prosecutor in western Sicily told The Mail on Sunday. ‘We are investigating how some of it may have reached them.’
The prosecutor added that investigators will look at concerns that the Mafia rigged the awarding of contracts for the management of migrant centres.
Last year, prosecutors launched a probe into the disappearance of thousands of child refugees from state-run care homes in Sicily amid allegations of people smuggling by the Mafia.
Many of the migrants reaching the island arrive at the port city of Trapani. Last year each boat-load was greeted with heartfelt cries of encouragement and even applause. Sicilians are well disposed to underdogs and pride themselves on a warm welcome.
But now the island has become the frontline in the crisis, they look askance at new arrivals. Sympathy has worn thin, the prevailing mood has altered; the numbers are overwhelming.
Since the start of the year, 51,492 mainly West Africans and Bengalis have crossed the Mediterranean from Libya.
Another 35,000 made it to the Italian mainland and, with the human flow seemingly never-ending, the country has been turned into what one politician describes as a ‘ticking time bomb’.
As well as keeping a watchful eye on the Mafia’s involvement, there are two separate inquiries into allegations that refugee agencies are facilitating the lucrative people-smuggling trade.
Migrants are usually herded on to inflatable dinghies that have no hope of reaching Sicily – more than 300 miles north of Libya – even if they weren’t dangerously overloaded. It has been alleged that traffickers arrange for charity workers using large vessels to intercept the dinghies and rescue the passengers. There have also been claims that in some cases the charity workers are paying gangs to ferry migrants to their boats.
One source said investigators believe that if the switch takes place in Libyan waters, the charity vessels turn off their GPS devices to avoid detection by coastguards.
‘The signal disappears and then reappears about 20 minutes later – in other words, after the rescue,’ said the source. ‘If questioned later by coastguards, the NGOs [non-governmental organisations] simply say there were technical difficulties.’
Trapani magistrate Ambrogio Cartosio believes the charities are effectively acting as a taxi service and says their alleged involvement ‘pushes the traffickers to load the migrants on ever more precarious vessels’.
He added: ‘They can be sure that after a few miles they will be picked up by the ships.’
Charities such as Save The Children, which has rescued more than 4,000 migrants this year, deny the collusion claims and say that but for the rescue vessels many more than the 2,000 who have already drowned this year would perish. Such are the moral quandaries that Sicily has been left to wrestle with alone. For last week the EU, criticised for its muddled approach to the crisis, turned its back on Rome, rejecting a plea to provide more help.
Italy wanted its neighbours to open their ports to rescue ships so the number of migrants would be spread out across more countries on the Continent.
Germany, France, Spain and the Netherlands all refused and instead endorsed a plan to give funds to Libya. Renato Brunetta, from Silvio Berlusconi’s Forza Italia party, said the door had been slammed in Italy’s face.
He added: ‘The invasion continues from week to week, the emergency continues, and our country is transformed ever more into a ticking time bomb.’
In contrast to eastern Sicily, where migrants are housed in a vast camp, the authorities in the west of the island preferring to house them in small groups of around 150, thereby minimising tensions.
For a time the strategy worked well, but the huge surge in those arriving in recent months has left many overwhelmed.
‘Enough is enough,’ locals say.
A few miles from Trapani, the sleepy hillside town of Valderice enjoys enviable views over Cornino Bay.
It is here that 170 West African men – all under 30 – are housed at the Villa St Theresa Hotel, where they are given three meals a day, the use of a bicycle each, and a debit card which they use to withdraw £2.20 a day.
Italian lessons are held each day and there is much focus on ‘integration’. Locals joke it has become a ‘finishing school for young migrants’. There is even a ‘cultural mediator’, a cheerful former topographer from Togo. ‘I mainly help with translation and deal with any problems,’ says Djika Kossi.
One of the chief complaints from Sicilians is that many – if not the vast majority – of migrants arriving on their shores are simply seeking a better life, rather than, in the case of those from Syria, fleeing civil war.
Many residing at St Theresa scarcely bother to conceal their true intentions. Others offer reasons that they concede are met with scepticism by the authorities. A 20-year-old from Guinea, for instance, insisted he had to leave his homeland after his family disowned him when he converted from Islam to Christianity.
Friday evening in Valderice’s main square found many of the migrants sitting in the shade listening to music on their phones while the local youths circled them, giggling, on bicycles.
They complain of boredom, the poor food and of how they never expected to be held in limbo for so long while their cases were decided.
‘I have been here a year and I was ordered yesterday that I have five days to leave the island,’ said Babacarry, 20, from The Gambia. ‘I have no idea where I will go – I have no money and I don’t plan to swim back to Libya.’
Egsosa Enoruwa, 27, from Nigeria, swigs from a cheap bottle of brandy. The son of policeman and a teacher, he hoped to pursue a career in engineering in Italy.
‘I have been here ten months and I am giving up hope – that is why I am going to get drunk.
‘I have no friends here. You see, I do not like girls – I am a gay man and that is why I had to leave Nigeria. I was persecuted.’
Initially, the town welcomed all the migrants, but an incident in May last year destroyed much of the goodwill.
A 57-year-old woman was struck on the back of the head by a migrant late at night and robbed of her mobile phone and €50. Valentin Omwanta, 25, who was later arrested and prosecuted, dragged her from the street and dumped her under a tree.
‘Many of the people in Valderice bought guard dogs or burglar alarms after that,’ said one female resident. ‘There has never been crime like it here. In time the relationship with the migrants was repaired but now that they don’t stop coming, people are getting concerned – concerned about what will happen to Sicily.’
Source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4678112/How-mafia-moving-migrant-crisis-aid-money.html
