During 2021, traffickers’ networks turned to the “Calabria Route” sending refugees and migrants to Italy directly from Turkey, usually by sailboat. At the end of October 2021, a similar route was followed by the tanker VATHA, with 382 passengers curled up in its hold.
The 35-meter-long tanker named “VATHA” was found unmanned at a distance of 7 nautical miles from the east coast of Crete (Greece). It carried 382 passengers in its bowels, their coiled bodies covering every inch of the floor. One’s feet rested on the other’s headrest and the smell of petroleum was mixed with that of feces. Breathing was almost impossible.
Their traffickers had promised to travel directly from Turkey to Italy. They had cost the route to 6500 euros on average per person. The ship was first towed to Kos (Greece), where the passengers disembarked and then transported to Leros. The autopsy that was performed testifies to the danger that the passengers were in. It was a matter of luck that they had reached so far without sinking.
The Trafficking
This is not the first time that old merchant ships, instead of being taken to landfills, have been selected as a means of transporting refugees and migrants. In December 2014, the “Blue Sky M” truck departed from the Turkish coast of Mersin, and crossed the Greek seas undisturbed and ended up in the port of Gallipoli in Italy. It carried 769 people, including 60 children and a newborn.
Almost a similar course was followed a few days later by the merchant ship “Ezadeen” which docked in Calabria. Ghost boats like these are not the only means used by traffickers on this sea route, which is called the “Calabrian route”. In 2021, at least 120 vessels have managed to reach the Italian coast from Turkey, transporting 11,826 people – more than those who have arrived in the Greek islands during the same period.
Smaller hulls are usually chosen that can mislead the authorities and be considered touristy. In the three recent shipwrecks with at least 31 dead in Paros, Folegandros and Antikythera (Greece), the traffickers had used a catamaran, a yacht and a sailboat. Another sailboat that followed the same route ran aground on Christmas Eve on a rocky shore in East Mani (Greece).
According to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, 27% of this year’s maritime arrivals in Italy had left Turkey. Most routes of this kind end in Calabria and it is not excluded that the traffickers’ networks cooperate in some way (directly or directly) with the Italian Mafia. By mid-November this year, 9687 people had arrived in Calabria, while in the corresponding period in 2020 they had just exceeded 2500.
