Traffickers hand the helm to Syrian asylum-seeker

Photo / AP

A Syrian asylum-seeker who piloted nearly 770 illegal migrants on board a cargo ship to Italy has described how he was appointed as the "captain" of the ship by a trafficking gang.

Sarkas Rani, 36, took charge of the Blue Sky M, one of two vessels that brought hundreds of asylum seekers from Syria towards Italy's shores last week.

European border officials believe it is part of a new tactic by the trafficking gangs, who acquire the boats on the black market and then simply abandon them once they are close to European shores.

In remarks quoted by La Repubblica, which used transcripts of a police interrogation after Rani was arrested in the Italian port of Gallipoli, he claimed to have been contacted in Turkey by human traffickers who had posted notices on Facebook offering clandestine passage to Europe at 3500 ($7000) a time.

When they learned that he had previously worked as a sailor, they offered him free passage if he would pilot the ship himself - saving the trafficking gang the problem of having to make an exit from the boat when it neared European waters.

"They promised me US$15,000 and the possibility of sending my entire family over," Rani said. The Blue Sky M, which is flagged to Moldova, was intercepted last Thursday by Italian authorities as it was locked on a course towards Italy's coast.

Rani admitted having left the bridge to hide among the migrant passengers once he had set the autopilot toward Italy's southern shore. By the time Italian naval officers boarded the ship, it was close to running aground in what could have led to a fatal sinking.

Rani said his participation in the venture began when he left Lebanon, where he had sought refuge from the civil war ravaging Syria, to spend time in Turkey.

He said that he and the other asylum seekers boarded the ship at the port of Mersin, which has become a haven for people-smuggling gangs trafficking refugees from the Syrian war into Europe. He said that at no time did the Turkish authorities undertake any inspection of the Blue Sky M before he took it out to sea.

After leaving Turkey, bad weather forced Rani to approach the Greek coast and ask authorities for permission to take shelter in a bay until the sea calmed. That request was granted, but Greek officials did not check the contents of the vessel, he said.