Following the Money: On the Trail of African Migrant Smugglers – part 1
Published on Spiegel Online International, by Alexander Bühler, Susanne Koelbl, Sandro Mattioli and Walter Mayr, Sept 26, 2016 (Photo Gallery).
Since 2013, over 10,000 migrants have drowned while attempting to cross the Mediterranean to Europe. Behind the deaths lies a multi-million dollar smuggling trade with financial connections to Frankfurt, Italy and Libya … //
… Eritreans are responsible for more asylum applications in Germany than any other African country. At the same time, the number of migrant smugglers who go underground in Germany is also growing. Migrant smuggling has joined the arms trade and drug dealing as one of the most lucrative forms of organized crime and has largely become controlled by Eritreans. It is happening under the noses of German officials, whose alleged inaction in the face of the development is met with consternation on the part of Italian investigators.
DER SPIEGEL spent months reporting on the migrant smugglers’ network, spending time in Libya, Italy, Frankfurt and Berlin. We examined more than one thousand pages of case files, evaluated confidential records and spoke with refugees who survived the trip across the Mediterranean. The reporting painted a clearer image of the cynical migrant smugglers who are willing to accept the deaths of thousands, who lock up refugees and sell them like livestock.
One of the most notorious of these smugglers is Ermias Ghermay.
TRIPOLI, LIBYA: … //
… Graph: The Way North … //
… “Immediately afterwards, I called him and set up a meeting in the cafeteria. I wanted to get him to pay compensation to the families,” Yonas says. “He actually turned up, but in the end, he only returned the price for the voyage. Nobody got any more than that.”
The refugees have only themselves to blame for their deaths, Ghermay said in a telephone call to a migrant smuggler from Sudan, adding that they didn’t follow his instructions and carelessly caused the boat to capsize. He insisted that he had a clear conscience. “If I followed the rules and they died anyway, then it’s fate,” Ghermay said.
The man from Sudan agreed: “There is no appeal against God’s judgment.”
(full text).
Part 2: The Human Warehouses on the Coast of Libya;
Part 3: A Lack of Help from Germany;
Part 4: Unmarked Graves.
Links:
Trump vs Clinton:
- Das erste TV Duell, deutsch komplett, 119.08 min, von Champion Jan 2 am 27.09.16;
- Phoenix Runde zum Duell, 45.27 min, von Phoenix am 27. Sept 2016;
- FULL: Donald Trump vs Hillary Clinton – First Presidential Debate 2016 – Hofstra University NY, 96.41 min, uploaded by RBC NETWORK BROADCASTING, was LIVE on Sept 26, 2016;
Wealthy Gulf States may arm Syrian rebels to ‘get the Russians to back off’ – US officials, on RT, Sept 27, 2016;
Turkish spies had Kurdish trade unionist ‘assassinated’ in London cafe, on RT, Sept 27, 2016;
Breaking Through Power, uploaded on YouTube by TRNN LIVE:
- Part 2, Day 2, 8 h 08.11 min, was LIVE on Sept 27, 2016;
- Part 2, Day 1, 7 h 55.12 min, was LIVE on Sept 26, 2016;
The Nobel Prize in Economics, Time for a Return to Social Democracy, on New Economic Thinking, by Avner Offer, Sept 26, 2016;
World Beyond War, uploaded on YouTube by TRNN LIVE:
- Day 2 (cont), 42.19 min, was LIVE on Sept 24, 2016;
- first part, 7 h 31.10 min, was LIVE on Sept 23, 2016;
On Being a Bad Samaritan And a Good Person, on Imaginary Vision of True Peace, by Andrew Marr, July 8, 2016;
… and this: