The European Union has been accused of paying African migrant smugglers thousands – to encourage them to quit the illegal trade and set up their own businesses instead.
According to an investigation by the BBC’s Panorama programme, traffickers are getting up to £6,000 a time to move into new employment, such as training to become a mechanic, or help to set up a farm or shop.
An EU spokesman has denied that any cash was given to individuals, but an unnamed EU official told the programme off-camera that ex-smugglers were being given money via third parties and that the vetting system to decide who received help was ‘flawed’.
The European Union has been accused of paying African migrant smugglers to quit the illegal trade and set up their own businesses instead (picture taken from Panorama programme)
According to an investigation by the BBC’s Panorama programme, traffickers are getting up to £6,000 a time to move into new employment (picture taken from Panorama)
In one project, in Niger, the EU said it had ‘invested’ 687,000 euros or £604,000 in a pilot project designed to help former traffickers in the past 12 months alone.
The West African state is seen as the gateway to Libya and on to the Mediterranean for refugees seeking a better life in Europe.
In August, around 4,000 migrants made the dangerous crossing by boat from Libya to Italy – but that number represented a huge fall on the previous year, when 21,000 travelled across the Med in August 2016.
The reduction is largely due to the crackdown by the Niger government and the EU, which has handed more than £300million to the country to help it combat those indirectly involved in trafficking.
Panorama found that, until a few months ago, convoys of pick-up trucks packed with migrants from all over sub-Saharan Africa would leave the city of Agadez, in Niger, to travel just over 500 miles across the desert to the Libyan border.
But following the crackdown, huge numbers of trucks have been confiscated. For each one impounded, there is a driver left without a vehicle and a livelihood.
In one project, in Niger, the EU said it had ‘invested’ 687,000 euros or £604,000 in a pilot project designed to help former traffickers in the past year alone (picture from Panorama)
An EU spokesman has denied that any cash was given to individuals, but an unnamed EU official said ex-smugglers were being given money via third parties (picture from Panorama)
Reporters from the BBC One programme were given access to a meeting that was overseen by Nigerian and EU officials where those claiming to be former people smugglers or to have been involved in the illegal migrant trade were lined up and selected for EU funding to launch businesses of their own choice.
It was claimed they can receive up to 6,000 euros each. One official told reporters that the system was ‘flawed’ because there was very little paperwork and instead friends or colleagues ‘vouched’ for the former smugglers’ identities and intentions.
A spokesman for the EU said no money was given directly or indirectly via third parties to former people smugglers.
An EU spokesman admitted that 687,000 euros had been invested in ‘reconversion activities’ in Niger (picture from Panorama)
However, she did admit that 687,000 euros had been invested in ‘reconversion activities’ in Niger and that around 6,500 people previously involved in ‘irregular migrant activities’ had been identified by 15 municipalities of the region of Agadez.
She said: ‘People previously involved in smuggling submit reconversion projects that are then assessed.
‘If they are deemed realistic they can get assistance that meets their needs in kind –equipment, tools, livestock.
‘There is no cash transfer to beneficiaries. Other projects offer vocational training.’
Panorama: Africa’s Billion Pound Migrant Trail will be broadcast tonight at 8.30pm on BBC One.