Police in Palermo have closed down 728 websites promoting illegal travel by migrants from North Africa to Italy. To attract customers, the websites in some cases offered discounted prices for women and children, as well as travel packages for families, police said.
She examined more than a thousand websites and social network accounts that served as “travel agencies” for the smugglers.
Smugglers active in Libya and Egypt
The websites listed the cost of the trip (around 4,600 euros per person) and the method of payment via money transfer systems. Behind the websites are human traffickers operating in Libya and Egypt. The locations were closed in collaboration with the American company Meta, according to the Palermo police. This began a few months ago with the systematic monitoring of the websites and social networks used by human traffickers to advertise illegal trips from North Africa to Italy.
The analysis of the websites, which began last November, made it possible to launch investigations and obtain information on the places of departure or transit of migrants and on new means of transport. The information collected will be used to monitor the migration phenomenon and to exchange information directly with the Libyan and Tunisian police authorities, the police report.
Government welcomes successes in illegal migration
Since the beginning of 2024, 44,675 migrants have arrived in Italy after a sea crossing across the Mediterranean, compared with 125,806 in the same period in 2023, the Interior Ministry in Rome said on Sunday. Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni recently welcomed the results of the fight against illegal migration. Arrivals have fallen by 64 percent this year compared with the same period in 2023, she said.
Source: Krone
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