The Trafficker

by Alex Perry, Connie Agius

By then end of 2015, the European Union predicts the number of migrants trying to cross the Mediterranean could spike to 500,000 or even a million. That could bean ten of thousands of deaths as desperate refugees crowd into flimsy vessels, paying hundreds of dollars for a chance at a new life in Europe. Behind these deaths is a network of people traffickers and mafia connections, whose new business - "bigger than drugs" - depends on trading in human cargo.

One man Erimas Ghermay, alias "the Ethiopian" is at the centre of those networks. Forty years old, street smart and multilingual, Ghermay is the mastermind of one of the biggest groups of people traffickers in a $7bn industry. Under his watch, "colonels" all over North Africa and Europe move refugees northwards for cash fares, paid in advance. Many of them will drown in Ghermay's "disposable" boats. If they survive, reaching the coastlines of Southern Europe, they will likely fall prey to the Mafia, whose control extends inside refugee centres.

Using transcripts of Ghermay's phone calls recorded secretly by the Italian police, Newsweek reporters Alex Perry and Connie Agius piece together the details of how Ghermay plies his deadly trade.

35 pages, Kindle Edition

First published June 15, 2015

About the author

Alex Perry is a reporter and nonfiction author. He is the author of Blood Will Flow, The Good Mothers, The Rift, Falling Off The Edge, and Lifeblood, as well as several ebooks. His journalism has won numerous awards and has appeared in The New Yorker, National Geographic, Politico, The Economist, Outside, The Guardian, Harper's, TIME, Newsweek, and others. Among screen adaptations of his work, Disney made a 6-part series of The Good Mothers, which won the Berlinale film festival. Born in Philadelphia and raised in England, Perry lived and worked for 15 years in Asia and Africa. He now lives in Hampshire, England.