‘Dubai, Alexandria transit points into Libya for Bangladeshi migrants’
News Desk :
Dubai in the United Arab Emirates and Alexandria in Egypt served as transit points between Dhaka in Bangladesh and Benghazi in Libya for Bangladeshi nationals, European Home Affairs Commissioner Ylva Johansson said.
Replying to a parliamentary question by Labour MEP Cyrus Engerer, she said Brussels was “closely monitoring” the central Mediterranean migration route, including the transfer of Bangladeshi nationals from Libya to Italy, reports Malta Today, a Malta-based twice-weekly newspaper.
“There are indications that the routes used to reach Libya from Dhaka are direct connections between Dubai and Benghazi or Alexandria and Benghazi,” Johansson replied on behalf of the European Home Affairs Commission.
Engerer’s question was prompted by a MaltaToday report earlier this year that revealed Frontex intelligence on how Bangladeshi migrants are being smuggled aboard charter flights into Libya where they get onto boats to reach Europe.
The confidential Frontex report seen by MaltaToday singled out Cham Wings as one of the airlines used by the criminal groups to smuggle people between Damascus in Syria and Benghazi in Libya.
Cham Wings is owned by Syrian businessman Issam Shammout. The airline is part of his family business, the Shammout Group, which is active in the automotive, steel, aviation, freight forwarding, construction, and real estate sectors, according to Malta Today.
On 20 July last year, the EU lifted sanctions against Cham Wings, after the company was blacklisted in December 2021 for its alleged role in ferrying migrants seeking to cross illegally into Poland from Belarus that summer.
However, a day later the EU placed Shammout on its sanctions list, calling him a “leading business person operating in Syria”.
Shammout is contesting the sanctions against him at the European Court of Justice.
Cham Wings, which does not operate to EU countries, remains subject to US sanctions and pressure is building within the EU to follow suit.
The Frontext report shed light on what was a relatively new phenomenon of Bangladeshi migrants trying to shortcut the legal channels to come and work in Europe by hooking up with people smugglers who utilised chartered flights for the first part of the journey, writes Malta Today.
The European Home Affairs Commission said talks on migration and mobility between the EU and Bangladesh in March this year established a permanent forum to stop people smuggling.
