The headline could have read “Making Money Off Others’ Misery”, yet Italian daily La Repubblica has a migrant smuggler, arrested on Sicily recently, laughing about migrant-laden boats ferrying their human cargo across the Mediterranean to the “promise land”, the European Union in this case.

The suspect, an Eritrean, was captured on tape by the Carabinieri during an investigation into the trafficking of migrants, which led to dozens of
arrests.

The suspect was identified as Mered Medhanie, 34.

According to the Italian newspaper, the Tripoli-based smuggler bragged about sport the “same style” as deposed Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi.

“They say I always let too many on board,” a giggling voice attributed to the man appears as saying, adding: “But it is them [the undocumented migrants] who want to leave as soon as possible.”

The suspect claimed to have smuggled up to 8,000 asylum seekers and others, variously identified by the press as “illegal immigrants”, irregular migrants”, “undocumented migrants or just plain “migrants,” on Italy-bound vessels over just the past year.
He is also heard saying he bribes guards at detention facilities in Libya to let the third country nationals out of jail in small groups of up to 20 a day “not to draw too much attention”.

The passage to Libya from Italy costs pay between US$400 and $1,500.

According to the International Business Times report, “authorities in Sicily said the top members of the alleged gang include Eritreans, Ethiopians, a Ghanaian and Ivory Coast nationals… They allegedly help the asylum seekers out of reception centres in Sicily, ferry them via bus or other means to Rome or Milan and from there to other EU counties. These are mainly Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden and Norway, prosecutor Geri Ferrara told Il Corriere della Sera newspaper.”