Russian sailors are increasingly arrested for transporting illegal immigrants to Italy: they are recruited by Turkish smugglers

Instead of Ukrainian sailors, smugglers are recruiting dozens of Russian citizens who operate ships with migrants from Turkey to Italy, reports TheGuardian.

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Since Moscow's invasion of Ukraine, Italian police have arrested at least 14 Russian citizens on charges of smuggling asylum seekers.

A report by the Italian non-governmental organization Arci Porco Rosso and the non-profit organization Borderline Europe "noted a doubling of the number of arrests of Russian citizens" accused of escorting courts, compared to the previous year. There are also many more arrests of Syrians, Bengalis and even people from landlocked countries such as Kazakhstan and Tajikistan.

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The route from Turkey to Italy was created by a criminal network of Turkish smugglers as an alternative to the long overland route through the Balkans to the EU. As a rule, using small high-speed yachts, most often stolen or rented. About 11 migrants arrived on the Italian coasts of Puglia, Calabria and Sicily in 000 from the Turkish ports of Izmir, Bodrum and Canakkale.

Initially, the smugglers recruited almost exclusively Ukrainian skippers, but since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the number of Ukrainians recruited by Turkish smugglers has been declining.

“Ukrainians played a key role in smuggling people from Turkey. They are experienced sailors who know how to operate the boat, the report said. “With the outbreak of the war, Ukrainian men were prohibited from leaving their country, which undoubtedly became a determining factor in the decrease in the number of Ukrainian skippers.”

Instead, Turkish gangs began to train asylum seekers to operate boats, recruit Turkish sailors, and recruit an ever-growing number of citizens from Russia and other former Soviet republics.

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“In the past, some Russian citizens were recruited by smugglers for this work, but these were mostly isolated cases,” said lawyer Giancarlo Liberati. “After the Russian invasion of Ukraine and actually a few months before the war, we noticed an increase in the number of Russian citizens being recruited to operate these ships that transport migrants. Their participation became almost systematic.”

In May 2022, a ship carrying about 100 migrants crashed into an old marina in Siderno, Calabria. As a result of the incident, two people died: both were Russian citizens who allegedly operated the ship.

The latest arrest was in November, when three Russians brought about 100 migrants from Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq to the coast of Sicily.

Sabrina Gambino, head of the Sicilian prosecutor's office in Syracuse, said that "behind this is a 'well-organized Turkish criminal network that uses luxury boats, allegedly stolen or rented.'

If sentenced, boat captains face up to 15 years in prison.

Charities and lawyers say most Russians held in Italian prisons say they had to flee their country to avoid military service, that they refused to fight in Ukraine.

“A Russian citizen in prison wrote us a letter that he had to flee Russia to escape the war, but that, along with another refugee from Russia, upon arrival, he was arrested as a human smuggler,” said Richard Braude, activist Archie Porco Rosso .

Russian citizen Ilnar Sadrutdinov, a resident of Tatarstan who was arrested in early 2022 for driving a boat carrying dozens of asylum seekers from Turkey to Calabria, said he left Russia because he did not want to take up arms.

“I am very sorry that Putin and the people who supported him began to take over Ukraine,” he said in court. “Please don’t send me back to Russia, because now those who refuse to fight are put in prison.” My aunt is married to a Ukrainian, my sister is married to a Ukrainian. Ukraine is a brotherly nation for me.”

He claimed that he was unaware of the penalties for human smuggling. “They told me that with this job I could save people and earn money,” Sadrutdinov said. “If I had known that I would go to prison, even for a year, I would never have taken this job.”

Crotone's chief prosecutor, Giuseppe Capoccia, stated that the skippers hired by the Turkish networks "were hired for this particular role" and that in some cases they "had a tourist visa".

“These are desperate sailors who are looking for any job to earn some money,” he added.

Despite the increase in the number of Russian smugglers, the largest number of skippers arrested on this route came from Egypt and Turkey.

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In recent years, human rights charities and associations have taken notice of Italy's policy of criminalizing boat captains, filling its prisons with innocent people who are used as scapegoats.

According to aid workers and lawyers, migrant ship captains are very often also refugees or people with no job alternatives who have been swindled by smugglers.

“A lot of the arrests involve people who have never driven a boat in their lives,” said Sarah Traylor, an activist with Arci Porco Rosso. “We must remember how long and risky these journeys are - and they are made even more dangerous by attempts to criminalize them. If the people operating the boat have no experience, it leads to tragedy, as we see.”

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