2023-09-23 09:00:00
“There have always been criminal gangs who took advantage of desperate people trying to get into the EU by forcing them onto unseaworthy boats with hardly any supplies, no life jackets and so on,” reports the Frontex spokesman. But now you see greedy people smugglers competing for this lucrative business and trying to offer the crossings at discounted prices. “Because they are so poorly built, these metal boats are like coffins in the water.”
Unlike many wooden boats, they do not float if they capsize. They cannot cope with larger waves or even storms. When fully loaded, water quickly spills inside. However, this is big business for the smugglers. A place in such a welded barge costs between 300 and 1,800 euros. With 40 inmates, that’s between 11,000 and 70,000 euros in profit. The cost of such a boat should not be much more than a few hundred euros. Two other dumps like those in the north of the Sfax governorate can be found directly at the coast guard headquarters in the city of Sfax. The authority collected the first boats here after 2017. In 2021 there were so many that another dump was needed.
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