The Times
By Philip Willan
26 August 2017
Magistrates in three Sicilian ports have opened investigations into suspected collusion between charities and Libyan people traffickers.
It follows the decision of a judge from Trapani in western Sicily to impound a ship operated by the German non-profit group Jugend Rettet (Youth to the Rescue) this month.
Save the Children and Médecins Sans Frontières are also under investigation, according to Italian media, but both charities said they had received no official communication to that effect.
The charities bitterly reject claims of collusion. Médecins Sans Frontières said it was “a heinous accusation”, for which prosecutors had been unable to produce supporting evidence.
The suspects in the Trapani investigation are said to include two skippers of the Iuventa, a former trawler operated by Jugend Rettet, a third crew member, and Father Mussie Zerai, an Eritrean priest who has frequently alerted authorities to the plight of his countrymen adrift on the Mediterranean.
The Trapani investigation has relied on testimony from an undercover police officer infiltrated into the crew of a ship operated by Save the Children and on bugs used to record on-board conversations.
Save the Children insists it has always respected the law and collaborated with Italian authorities.
It said it would take legal action to protect its reputation from the “false and defamatory information” being spread in the media by employees of the security company that had operated on its ships.
Among the first to alert authorities to alleged irregularities were two private security guards operating on board Save the Children’s rescue ship Vos Hestia. One guard recently renewed his accusations in an interview with the newspaper Quotidiano Nazionale.
The witness claimed traffickers communicated with charities by satellite phone, adding: “To tell the truth, I saw few migrants in danger of their lives.”
Migrant Rescue Watch 