Smuggling Migrants to Europe Now a Major Funding Source for ISIS

Islamist terror groups including Islamic State are now getting much of their revenue from smuggling migrants into Europe, Italy’s intelligence chief has said.

Information gathered by intelligence agencies shows that criminal gangs in Africa who work to traffick migrants into Europe have developed “partnerships” with terrorist organisations in the Middle East including Islamic State, Alessandro Pansa told La Stampa on Tuesday.

“ISIS is facing serious setbacks. Its biggest sources of income — smuggling oil products and antiquities, are at the edge of drying out. We think terrorists are resorting to human trafficking as a new source of revenue,” Pansa told the newspaper.

Pansa, the Director General of the Department of Information Security, revealed the intelligence agency’s findings at a talk in Naples about Africa and the ‘risks and opportunities’ of immigration.

Describing the involvement of Islamic terror groups in human trafficking as a major challenge for Italy, the security chief said it’s vital that Italy works with governments in Africa to “attack at the roots of the migration phenomenon”.

Reuters reported on Monday that the Italian government has set up a fund to help African nations seal their external borders and help stem the flow of migrants crossing the Mediterranean to Europe.

More