The European Commission said on Friday that the fight against smuggling will be a top priority in its “comprehensive approach to migration” for 2015.

The commission notes that smugglers are finding new routes to Europe and are employing new methods to exploit desperate people who are trying to escape conflict and war in their home countries. A commission statement says “We must not allow smugglers to put at risk people’s lives in old, abandoned ships in dangerous weather.”

For the second time this week, Italian authorities took control of a cargo ship carrying hundreds of migrants that was abandoned at sea by its crew off southern Italy.

Italian Coast Guard officials estimate roughly 450 people are on board the Ezadeen, which is sailing under the flag of Sierra Leone, and believe most of them are from Syria.

The Coast Guard managed to take control of the vessel after landing on it by helicopter, a statement said.

A passenger was able to operate the ship’s radio and informed the authorities that the crew had jumped ship.

Cargo ship adrift

The cargo ship had been drifting powerless in rough seas about 40 nautical miles from Italy’s southern coast .

“We know that it left from a Turkish port and was abandoned by its crew,” coastguard spokesman Filippo Marini said in an interview with SkyTG24 television. “When we hailed the ship to ask about its status, a migrant woman responded, saying, ‘We are alone and we have no one to help us.'”

The ship had been put on a collision course for the Italian coast but ran out of fuel, Marini said.

Another abandoned ship intercepted

On Wednesday, Italian sailors intercepted a freighter carrying several hundred migrants that had been drifting on autopilot toward the rocks of Italy’s southeastern shore. The ship had also been abandoned by smugglers.

The Moldovan-registered Blue Sky M cargo ship got to within 8 kilometers of a disaster before six navy officers were lowered onto the ship by helicopter and brought it under control. It was guided safely to the southern port of Gallipoli.

Most of the people aboard the Blue Sky were Syrian and Kurdish refugees.

Thousands of migrants die trying try to cross the Mediterranean Sea to Europe every year. Some use dangerous and flimsy boats, while others pay smugglers for a place on larger ships, such as ferries and freighters. 

Some material in this report came from Reuters.
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