Malta link suspected

The police are hunting two Maltese men believed to have caused the deaths of at least six Chinese and Mongolian illegal immigrants during a human trafficking operation on Thursday.

The traffickers allegedly forced the Chinese to jump into the freezing sea at gun-point from their speedboat some 15 nautical miles off the Sicilian coast. Another six were rescued by the Italian coastguard and three others remain missing.

Rome has asked the Maltese government to look into the matter, a spokesman for the Home Affairs Minister told The Times. The Maltese police are in touch with their counterparts in Ragusa with the aim of shedding some light on a criminal ring thought to involve Chinese and Maltese persons.

Authorities in the southern Sicilian port of Pozzallo said six bodies, including that of a woman, were found in the sea. Coastguard launches backed by helicopters were yesterday still searching for at least three other would-be immigrants.

The survivors said they boarded a boat in Malta for the ill-fated trip to Italy on Thursday at 1 a.m.

In a chilling testimony from her hospital bed in Modica, a 26-year-old survivor told the Corriere della Sera newspaper that at about 3.30 a.m. the immigrants were told to jump into the sea because they were close to Sicilian land, but not before they handed over the money which, according to some media reports, amounted to something like $1,000 per person.

The smugglers apparently pointed to the lights of an oil rig, telling the immigrants they were looking at the Sicilian coast.

"The smugglers made the illegal immigrants jump into the water, giving them life rings to hang on to. We do not know if they forced them but we know that one of the smugglers had a gun," prosecutor Domenico Platania, who opened an investigation, said.

Some of those on board reportedly could not swim. The waters were close to freezing point at that hour.

Later, the authorities were alerted by a Turkish merchant ship that several people were in the sea in the strait that separates the Italian island from the Tunisian coast.

An autopsy carried out on the dead woman in Ragusa yesterday showed she actually succumbed to blows on the head before she was thrown overboard.

The Office of the Attorney in Modica has opened an inquiry into the case which could possibly lead to murder charges being pressed.

Investigators believe the smugglers are part of a large Chinese organised crime ring that smuggles illegal immigrants to Italy through Malta, Italian news agency Ansa said.

Last December, opposition foreign affairs spokesman Leo Brincat said in Parliament a diplomat in the Maltese embassy in Beijing was working in collusion with a Chinese travel agent by issuing visas for Chinese students who came to Malta ostensibly to study English but then proceeded to mainland Europe as illegal immigrants.

Some Italian media reports yesterday backed this saying several Chinese persons were arriving in Malta supposedly to learn English. While in Malta, they make contact with traffickers who try and help them reach Sicily.

Quoted in La Sicilia, Dr Platania yesterday had harsh words for the Maltese authorities: "Malta is not collaborating with us and it's not just with this case. We have several other precedents where we've identified those responsible for human trafficking but we have not managed to obtain their extradition.

"The problem is not judiciary, but political, because Malta by now has become a fundamental link for illegal migration towards Italy," he charged.

Speaking to The Times, Police Commissioner John Rizzo expressed surprise at Dr Platania's comments, especially since both police forces have always had the best of relations and collaboration and have always assisted each other in these types of investigations.

"Note that further investigations are being conducted from our end to establish details and evidence which may shed light on all cases being investigated," he said.

Both forces, Mr Rizzo said, are in constant contact regarding the incidents and all developments being registered are being exchanged between the two forces and through the respective foreign affairs ministries.

Mr Rizzo said that at the present stage of investigation it would be imprudent to divulge "details established so far" because recent cases are the subject of a magisterial inquiry.

A ministry spokesman said Home Affairs Minister Tonio Borg was unavailable for comment.