Those wishing to risk everything for an allegedly "safe" passage to mainland Europe are asked to pay thousands of pounds upfront for a ticket and leave all possessions behind as they are taken on a perilous journey in trucks and boats, the outlet reported Friday.
Traffickers advise their customers to carry cameras with them to look like foreign tourists, and women are forbidden to wear headscarves.
In reality, these trips frequently turn out to be deadly as evidenced by Thursday’s find of 71 Syrian refugees’ bodies in an abandoned refrigerator truck that officials said was not suitable for carrying people.
Migrants, including four children, appeared to have suffocated while on route from Hungary to Austria, about two days before the vehicle was found on an Austrian highway.
Meanwhile, search is continuing for about a hundred of undocumented migrants who were on two boats that capsized on Friday off Libyan coast.
Tens of thousands of migrants have travelled to Europe via land and sea routes since the start of 2015. The International Organization for Migration estimates this year’s fatalities among sea-borne migrants bound for Europe at 2,432, while 322,914 came ashore.
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