International press review
In the spotlight: shipwrecks and tragedies of illegal immigration
Audio 05:17
A Spanish aid group has spotted dehydrated migrants at sea and their boat is being escorted to the small Italian island of Lampedusa.
(illustration image) © AP / Olmo Calvo
By: Anne Corpet Follow
5 mins
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An investigation carried out by a network of European media shows that the company Bois Rouge, in the Central African Republic, is closely linked to Russian interests in the country.
And more specifically to the business network of Yevgueni Prigozhin, a close friend of Vladimir Putin suspected of being the leader of the Wagner group.
“
A screen for Russian interests in the Central African Republic
”
This
investigation was spread over three months and is published by the Belgian daily newspaper
Le Soir
.
It dates back to February 9, 2021 when an unknown company, Bois Rouge, obtained the right to exploit a forest of 186,000 hectares in the south-west of the country.
"
This company presents itself as a 100
% Central African company, but in reality it is a screen for Russian interests in the Central African Republic
," the newspaper said.
"
The forest concession was awarded to the company fifteen days after the arrival of Russian mercenaries in the region
", notes
Le Soir
, which describes in particular the financial links between Bois Rouge and Wagner's men.
"Our
analysis shows that Bois Rouge has obtained the right to exploit the forest intensively, as well as tax and customs advantages never granted to other companies"
, adds the daily, which specifies: "
Despite this preferential treatment, we were able to establish that Bois Rouge had not respected all of its commitments
”.
Mining, for example, began without a development plan or environmental impact study, which were mandatory.
In a box entitled "
In the Central African Republic, the Wagner group is firing on all cylinders
",
Le Soir
notes that "
tributes to Wagner's mercenaries are everywhere
" and continues: "
The "Russian advisers", as they are modestly nicknamed, have statues and films to their glory.
Ministers wear T-shirts with their effigy and members of associations financed by Moscow sing their praises during demonstrations
”.
Migrants on "urine-stained mats"
In Italy, the reception conditions for migrants on the island of Lampedusa are making headlines.
“
Immigrants in inhumane conditions
” denounces
La Repubblica
, which speaks of “a
festering wound in the country's reception system, like a wound that closes in the evening and reopens the next morning
”.
The newspaper describes migrants who sleep "
on mats soiled with urine and inhabited by cockroaches, next to leftover food, leaning against piles of rubbish
".
Nearly two thousand people crowd into a place designed to accommodate 500 at most, and the arrivals continue: "
No less than fifteen boats arrive every day, stranded on the shores of Lampedusa where holidaymakers take the sun or are sitting at the restaurant
, ”estimates the newspaper.
He gives the floor to a former employee of the reception center.
Piera Magnolia resigned in April.
"
The director stopped us from giving the children sweets and snacks, she claimed they could make them sick
," she says.
Another employee, still on duty, testifies: “
Sometimes those who have just finished picking up the garbage are sent to the kitchen.
Sometimes the food is bad, sometimes it's unfit
".
“
The sanitary conditions are a national disgrace
!
“, indignant
La Repubblica
, which announces in another article
the upcoming arrival on the spot of the leader of the Northern League
.
Matteo Salvini will come to campaign around his favorite theme: the fight against immigration.
In Lebanon, explosion of human trafficking
In Lebanon,
L'Orient le Jour
has precisely investigated the explosion in the number of candidates for illegal emigration
.
“
Here is a lucrative business that is flourishing in Lebanon thanks to the crisis
: the trafficking of human beings by boat.
As living conditions deteriorate, candidates for illegal emigration by sea are becoming more and more numerous in the land of the Cedars
”, notes the daily.
According to this survey, smugglers make juicy profits: three to five thousand dollars per passenger, but little effort is made to combat the phenomenon, "
once sent to trial, smugglers are very often acquitted and released
" , laments the newspaper.
Under the title "
these Lebanese ready to do anything to flee, even if it means dying
",
Orient le Jour
also interviewed several candidates for departure, including some survivors of a shipwreck which had caused the death of around thirty victims. in April.
This is the case of Mario Mardini, 36 years old.
“
When I was fished out, I vomited on a dead little girl lying next to me.
I am haunted by this moment
”, he says before adding: “
My cousin in Germany tried by all means to facilitate me obtaining a visa, but it does not work.
So, I'm going to try the trip by sea again if necessary
”.
Shipwreck: almost all the victims were women
In the United States, the
Miami Herald
returns to another drama of immigration: the sinking of a boat of Haitians Sunday off the Bahamas.
“
Almost all of the victims found were women
,” notes the daily.
"
This is the second time in two months that an overwhelming number of Haitian women have lost their lives in a shipwreck
", 17 bodies have so far been recovered from the sinking on Sunday, including only one man, and research continues, says the
Miami Herald
.
A Haitian sociologist from the University of Miami interviewed by the daily acknowledges that it is difficult to know why women die more than men during these dangerous crossings, but attempts an explanation: "
Haitian women know how to swim less than men
".
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