BRUSSELS (Sputnik) – Tens of thousands of undocumented migrants from Africa and the Middle East have crossed the Mediterranean in dingy boats since early 2015 to ask for asylum in Europe. Many of them come ashore in Italy, Greece and Malta.
"It is an alarming situation because we see, obviously, that these smugglings are meant to sometimes finance terrorism and that these smugglings are used to sometimes have and ensure exfiltrations and infiltrations by members of ISIL," Eurojust's counter-terrorism chief Michele Coninsx said at a press briefing.
"We do not count, we do not have figures, and to be very honest, I don’t think that anybody has figures," Coninsx confessed to journalists in Brussels.
South European governments previously expressed fears that Islamist fighters might be hiding among migrants. Concerns have been exacerbated by recent territorial gains of ISIL-affiliated militants in North Africa who reportedly control many coastal towns in Libya.
