2016-03-01
Smugglers, some of them organised in networks, are profiting from migrants’ despair by selling them their services, making a fortune in the process and fueling their criminal enterprise with cash.
Refugees and migrants are not treated like first-class passengers when they set out for Europe: stowed away on cargo ships, piled onto dinghies, they are often abandoned, their smugglers no longer interested in their fate.
Who are those well-organised criminals hiding behind those ships? Are they members of criminal or even terrorist networks? Are these ‘ghost ships’ linked together? Can European countries really work together to detect these structures and unearth their financial flows?
A team consisting of three Belgian, two Jordanian, one Turkish, one Romanian, one Greek and one Italian journalist set out for an investigation, starting with the ships on which men, women and children are sent to “Fortress Europe”.
Photo © Gabriel Drogeanu
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ONLINE
- The Criminal Migrant Shipping Network: A data driven cross-border investigation (EN) - Data Driven Journalism, 16 August 2016
- Cargo fantasma, trafficanti in carne e ossa (CH) - RSI, 29 June 2016
- Mülteci taşınan gemilerde mühimmat da taşınmış (T) - Evrensel, 23 April 2016
- Göçmen taşımacılığı suç şebekesi (T) - Evrensel, 22 April 2016
- Pirates of the Mediterranean Sea - ARIJ, 6 March 2016
- قراصنة المتوسط (AR) - ARIJ, 6 March 2016
- Un trafiquant de migrants: "J’ai bien bossé cette année, j’en ai fait partir sept ou huit mille" (FR) - La Libre Belgique, 3 March 2016
- Réseaux de passeurs en Méditerranée : Dans le sillage des pirates (FR) - La Libre Belgique, 3 March 2016
- Episodul III: Rețeaua româno-siriană a traficului de migranți: Europa a eșuat în combaterea traficului cu ființe umane (RO) - Romania Libera, 3 March 2016
- قراصنة البحر المتوسط الحقيقيون... بزات أنيقة وياقات بيض (AR) - alhayat.com, 3 March 2016
- Trafic de migrants : des bateaux-poubelles qui valent de l’or (FR) - La Libre Belgique, 2 March 2016
- Trafic de migrants : "Blue Sky M", navire fantôme (FR) - La Libre Belgique, 2 March 2016
- Episodul II. Rețeaua româno-siriană a traficului de migranți spre Europa: Galați și Constanța, centrele combinațiilor cu nave pentru refugiați (RO) - Romania Libera, 2 March 2016
- Trafic maritime de migrants : cargos pour l'enfer (FR) - La Libre Belgique, 1 March 2016
- Rețeaua româno-siriană a traficului de migranți spre Europa: 4 milioane de dolari la un singur transport (RO) - Romania Libera, 29 February 2016
- Cargos fantômes pour l'enfer (FR) - Marianne, 11 March 2016
- قراصنة البحر المتوسط الحقيقيون... بزات أنيقة وياقات بيض (AR) - Alhayat, 3 March 2016
- Cargos pour l'enfer (FR) - La Libre Belgique, 2 March 2016
- Rețeaua româno-siriană a traficului de migranți spre Europa (RO) - Romania Libera, 2 March 2016
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