Scaffolders also responsible for the inhuman treatment of migrants

The cafista who accepts, in exchange for a discount of more than 50% on the price of the travel to Italy, knows that he must repay himself for the favourable treatment. And it knows that the exchange favour will be that of agreeing to take, albeit on a pre-set route on autopilot at departure, a very large number of people, and in inhuman and degrading conditions, to a destination that can cost lives. With this in mind, the Cassazione, in its sentence 33810, confirms the four-and-a-half year sentence, with sentence expunged, against the smugglers for the crime of aiding and abetting illegal immigration, with several aggravating factors: for having transported a large number of people (78) by inflicting on theminhuman treatment by forcing them to travel undercover in order to evade controls, for putting their lives at risk and, finally, also for the purpose of making profit. An aggravating circumstance, the latter of which the Supreme Court had ruled out in its most recent judgments, considering the willingness to keep the compass only a way to secure the journey to Italy. For the judges in the case examined, there was no trace of solidarity purposes. Relations had only been maintained with the Turkish organisers.

The Supreme Court emphasised how it is known that the smugglers are always chosen of a different nationality from the migrants embarked, specifically the former Uzbeks and the latter Iranians and Iraqis, to avoid any form of contact. In the opinion of the ermines, it was clear from the manner of the journey that the defendants had behaved as requested by the organisers who had trained them before departure. They had confiscated the mobile phones of the 'passengers' and returned them only in sight of the Italian coast and had crammed them below deck, including women and children, in degrading conditions. Everything had been done in return for the derisory price paid for the voyage. Well aware that they had to pay for it.