Human traffickers stealing yachts for Aegean crossings
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There has been a surge in reports of theft of luxury boats on Turkey’s Aegean coast to then be used for smuggling illegal migrants from Turkish shores to Greek islands.
According to reports in the Turkish language daily, Sabah, Beşiktaş football club Chairman Fikret Orman was the latest victim of these thefts. Orman’s yacht, La Paradiso, anchored at a port in Bodrum in southwestern Turkey, was found abandoned at the Greek island of Kos after the businessman filed a criminal complaint with the police.
An investigation by security forces found out smugglers used the yacht to transport illegal migrants to the island and left it there.
Throughout summer, at least nine boats were stolen or had their engines and other equipment stolen in Bodrum, a popular resort town in the Muğla province. In one case, eyewitnesses said suspects arrived on jet skis.
The number of stolen boats might be higher as some owners do not file a complaint when the boats are found within one day and intact after they were stolen.
In June, 20 illegal migrants from Syria, Iraq and Palestine were discovered aboard a yacht which was reported stolen earlier off the coast of Bodrum’s Yalıkavak.
Migrant smuggling has been a profitable business as the conflict in Turkey’s southern neighbour Syria worsened, and smugglers continue operating, although in a much-limited capacity thanks to security operations. They charge fees as high as $2,000 to take migrants to Europe from Turkey.
Speaking at a meeting on illegal migration in the north-western city of Bursa, Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu said migrant smuggling has been a profitable business for terrorist groups like PKK and Daesh. “They facilitate and organize both drug trafficking, migrant smuggling and crossing of militants,” he said. The minister pointed out that Turkey faced “pressure” in terms of the increasing number of migrants, not only from its war-torn neighbour Syria but also from other Middle Eastern countries, Africa and Central Asia.
Official figures show that the number of intercepted migrants increased by 42% between January and August compared to 158,235 in the same period in 2018.
Officials say it is the joint and separate efforts of police, gendarme units and the Turkish Coast Guard on land and at sea that curbed the number of “successful” crossings and deaths.
Figures show the number of illegal migrants who reached EU countries via land crossings was 10,000 in the first eight months of 2018, but it dropped to 4,000 in the same period this year. The situation is different on the sea route, though. The number of people who reached Europe by sea was 18,000 in the first eight months of 2018, rising to 24,000 this year.
