Italian police arrest five suspected traffickers after migrant shipwreck

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http://www.france24.com/en/20150807-italian-police-arrest-five-traffickers-after-migrant-shipwreck



A woman is registered by the police after disembarking from a patrol vessel of the Italian Coast Guard at the port of Pozzallo

Italian police arrest five suspected traffickers after migrant shipwreck
Latest update : 2015-08-07

Italy arrested five North African men on Friday on suspicion of multiple homicide and human trafficking in the presumed drowning of more than 200 people, saying they used clubs and knives against migrants.

Most of the dead were locked in the hold of a boat that sank off the coast of Libya on Wednesday. Police said many children were believed to be among those who perished.

Two Libyans, two Algerians and a Tunisian ranging in age from 21 to 24, were placed under formal arrest in Palermo after being questioned on Thursday.

Police said the accused men charged the migrants between $1,200 and $1,800 for the voyage, depending on where they would be placed on the deck of the boat. Those in the hold paid about half as much as those above, they added.