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| Europe |
| Italy: Five suspected people smugglers arrested in Sicily |
| 2008-09-09 |
| (AKI) - Police have arrested five suspected people smugglers in Sicily after being identified by several illegal immigrants among a group of 176 who landed on the eastern coast of the island at the weekend. The five suspects are accused of criminal association aimed at concealing illegal immigration. Also on Monday, paramilitary Carabinieri police in the town of Mottola in Italy's southeastern Puglia region arrested 25 illegal immigrants, believed to be Afghans. The illegal immigrants were subsequently taken to local police headquarters to be deported. None of them had any identity documents. Police in the coastal city of Bari, the regional capital of Puglia, reported on Monday they had deported 230 illegal immigrants during the European summer season. The illegal immigrants were of various nationalities. Most had entered Italy as stowaways inside heavy goods vehicles aboard ferries. During the summer months, the number of illegal immigrants heading for Europe's Mediterranean countries including Italy, Spain and Malta surges. Hundreds arrive each week aboard rickety people smugglers' boats which mostly set sail from North Africa. |
| Posted by:Fred |