His
name is Osman. Or, that's how he introduced himself. He is one of the
top members of the Turkish mafia doing business upon migrants and
refugees in Turkey. He is not hiding ... “If the Turkish government
didn't want us to do the job we do, we couldn't pass to Greece not even
a fly” says disarmingly.
Stratis
Balaskas for the Athens News Agency
globinfo
freexchange
He has a
store in İzmir selling food stuff. It is a big store in Basmane, the
district of Greeks and Jews before 1922, which was saved from the
fire. The Turks in the district call him "Damascus". As
they say "there are more Syrians here than in Syria".
However, the picture of the area is not as it was last summer. There
are no Syrians in the streets. The municipality authorities
re-planted the grass in parks, there is not even a single Syrian.
Yet ...
there are!
Osman
explains to us that now “they stay in houses which have been rented
especially for this purpose. They cannot move freely, their
transportation is done through private cars which take them from
their houses and leave them on starting points. From there they are
being transferred to the departure spots.”
They are
being transferred through many ways that show the size and the
ruthlessness of the network.
So, migrants
and refugees have been transported by Osman in areas at the Turkish
side, located across Lesvos and Chios, through buses carried by
trucks for roadside assistance. Through school buses during the hours
that are not being used for the transportation of the kids. Through
convoys of private vehicles, which means that even if a car would be
stopped by the police, the others could continue to their
destination. But there is also ... VIP transportation, like of rich
Arabs with Russian escorts, even through ... hearses! The latest, as
Osman says, are expensive services and being paid nearly as much as
the trip to islands.
But lets go
back to İzmir where we find the base of the network. Under the fear
of the measures that allegedly will be taken by the Turkish
authorities, after the European pressure, the network has the
following plan schedule.
On the top
stand the members of the mafia. Most of them do this job for more
than 20 years. The old times were doing it for a nice daily wage.
Now, and especially the latest year, there is too much money in the
business and it is worth someone to risk.
On the other
side of the network stand some locals. They possess some spaces from
where the boats can start their journey safely. They are responsible
to keep the passage safe and clean. They are also responsible for the
training of someone among the passengers on how should handle the
boat. Or, they should pay someone, say 100 euros each time, to
transfer the boat with the passengers to the islands and return to
the base.
In the
middle of these groups, there are mainly two categories of people
involved. The "dealers", which are those who find
"customers" and pass them to the top members of the mafia.
They are doing it through Facebook pages, or, phone numbers that are
distributed among the "customers". They "fill"
the boat with passengers every time that the top members have one
ready for departure.
Close to
them stand the "bankers" of the network who are responsible
for receiving the payments. Anyone who wants to be transported pays
them through any way he/she can. With money or services. Jewelry,
valuable stones, or even archaeological pieces! From the moment of
the payment, he/she has three days to pass to Europe. After the end
of the journey, every migrant and refugee calls a phone number and
gives a code number which has been provided when he/she paid. Then,
the payments are "released" and the "banker" has to pay
everyone involved. About 15-20% is being paid to all who are involved
to the transportation and the rest goes to the top member of the
network, in our case, Osman.
“Why do
you take most of the money?”, we ask him. He explains that he has
too much expenses. He pays for the plastic boats which, depending on
their size and the quality of the engine, cost between 800 and 20,000
euro! These are being bought legally. Therefore, the police can't do
anything, even if they stop him while carrying the boats.
He also pays
the "bankers". They take between 20 and 100 euro for every
payment. They also keep all the money from those who do not call to
confirm that they arrived at the destination, either because they
have been drowned, or have been arrested by the coast guard and have
been sent back to camps in South-East Turkey.
“I don't
want blood money” [!], Osman says with audacity. But frequently
claims that there are “rules of morality” in his job. Because, as he
says, the top members “are moral”! They do not let people pass
under stormy sea. They do not fill with more than 50 people every big
boat, or 20, every small one. They transport people only in plastic
boats. Other locals and Arabs are responsible for the wooden boats.
Those Arabs “we had as mediators because of the language, but they
opened their own businesses and sent people to be drowned. These are
usually being caught by the Turkish coast guard, or they risk
transporting people with big boats resulting in accidents like the
one that happened in Lesvos in 28th October.”
Osman is
completely informed about the situation in Lesvos. He knows about the
accidents, the dead people, the hot spots, and all the problems in
the islands. He knows of course very well what happens also in
Turkey. For example, he said that during a weekend last month, no one
passed to Lesvos because of the presence of Erdogan in the area for
the celebration of olive collection. "We should not provoke"
says laughing.
He says
goodbye “because he has work to do”. We ask him if he worries for
telling these things to us. He's not afraid. “I told you again”
he says. “If the Turkish government didn't want us to do the job we
do, we couldn't pass to Greece not even a fly”! Besides, he made a
lot of money. “I don't have to work. Neither my children and my
grandchildren. Today, if someone tells me to stop, i'll do it. But no
one tells me ...” he says as we leave!
Translated
from the original source:
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