Italian Mafia makes billions from refugee crisis, says Eric Reguly
Eric Reguly, the Globe and Mail's Chief Europe Correspondent, says the Italian Mafia is making billions off the ongoing refugee crisis by preying on refugees in their country. The mafia is involved in everything from people smuggling, to controlling the distribution of food and medicine.
CBC Radio ·
Rescued migrants wait to disembark from an Italian Coast Guard vessel in Porto Empedocle, Sicily, southern Italy. (Francesco Malavolta/Associated Press)
Social Sharing
The Current9:18Italian Mafia makes billions from refugee crisis, says Eric Reguly
Earlier this month, The Current's Lara O'Brien brought us a documentary about some of the children who are making their way through Europe after fleeing their homes in Syria, Afghanistan, Eritrea and Sudan.
Listen to "Vanishing Hopes" by Lara O'Brien
The Current16:20Unaccompanied refugee minors in Europe are disappearing
Humanitarian workers in Italy have been doggedly working to protect unaccompanied minors as child refugees and migrants pour into the country. Some estimate thousands of migrant children are simply disappearing into Europe... many looking for work.
The Italian Government estimates there are 8-thousand unaccompanied minors under the age of 18 living with no parents, family or guardian. Humanitarian workers in Rome say some of the children are picked up by human traffickers or fall victim to sexual exploitation.
Eric Reguly is the Globe and Mail's Chief Europe Correspondent and he says there's another disturbing element to the on-going refugee crisis – the fact that the Italian mafia has become involved. Eric Reguly was in Rome.
This segment was produced by The Current's Gord Westmacott.
