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Sixteen suspected human traffickers of sea migrants arrested in Italy: officials

Xinhua, June 1, 2016 Adjust font size:

A total of 16 suspected human traffickers brought to Italy as part of a group of migrants rescued at sea were arrested in Italy's Sicily on Tuesday for aiding illegal immigration, local media reported.

The arrested were among 884 migrants who arrived in Catania, a city in southern Sicily, aboard an Italian ship on Saturday after their boats run into trouble in international waters off the Libyan coast, according to LA7 television.

Survivors reportedly said they paid between 500 to 1,000 euros (558 to 1,117 U.S. dollars) each for the dangerous crossing, which started after they were kept in camps in the Libyan towns of Sabratha and Zuwara for more than a month.

"The traffickers were the only ones equipped with life vests, differently from all the other migrants who unfortunately didn't have," Catania Prosecutor Michelangelo Patane underlined in an interview with local newspaper Catania Today on Tuesday.

"The migrants were put on bread and water in the camps, and also during the crossing they suffered an inhuman and degrading treatment, which confirms the drama of migrants that we are facing every day," Patane added.

Dangerous sea crossings have continued to result in tragedies. The United Nation refugee agency (UNCHR) said on Tuesday that at least 880 migrants died in a series of disasters in the Mediterranean last week.

The total number of migrants who have died of attempting the dangerous crossing since the start of

this year has thus risen to 2,510, compared to 1,855 registered over the same period last year.

More than 200,000 migrants have arrived by sea in Europe since the start of 2016, of which 46,714 came to Italy, almost the same number as in 2015, according to the UNHCR.

Also on Tuesday,the European Commission (EC) warned it will open infringement procedures against member states if the pace of a refugee relocation plan within the EU does not pick up. Endit