A fishing boat carrying 87 migrants was intercepted on Sunday in the Black Sea near the Romanian coast, the third such incident since mid-August, the French daily, Le Figaro reported.
Observed offshore, 14 nautical miles from the Romanian coast, the boat did not respond to warnings by the coastal guard who sent two boats to escort the vessel to the port of Midia.
On board were 48 men, 16 women and 23 children. Steps were taken to establish their nationality and the origin of the vessel.
Two more vessels carrying 69 and 68 illegal migrants respectively, from Syria and Iraq had already been intercepted in the Black Sea on 13 and 21 August.
Romania, which is not part of the Schengen area, has so far been largely untouched by the migratory crisis. But Bucharest is afraid that the Black Sea will become an alternative route for illegal immigrants trying to reach Europe, as more and more obstacles have virtually closed off the Mediterranean route, including the Italian measures taken to limit NGOs from “patrolling” off the coast of Libya to help migrants.
The latest boat apparently ignored warnings by police and had to be intercepted.
Italy and Greece have both suffered from the strain of the migrant crisis and worryingly it looks like people smugglers may now be targeting Romania as a new entry point into the European Union.
Romania already faced small boats filled with migrants crossing over from Turkey, heading towards Western Europe in 2015, but the numbers of these undocumented migrants were small, much smaller than in the Mediterranean. But they are growing.
The Schengen agreement, which was signed 30 years ago, has gradually scrapped border controls between European member states, and now controls at Europe’s outer borders have also become a flashpoint.
While Ireland and the UK have chosen to stay out of the Schengen area, Cyprus, Croatia, Bulgaria and Romania are eager to join it.
A Syrian, who asked not to be identified, told Euronews how smugglers lied to them about the trip. “The Turkish smugglers sent me pictures, on my mobile phone, of what the boat would look like: 5-stars. And they told me that the trip across the Black Sea – from Turkey to Romania – would only take ten hours,” he said.
“But there was no “yacht”, there was just a dilapidated boat, with no food, and instead of ten hours it took us 48 hours.”
In the middle of the stormy Black Sea, the smugglers started to threaten their passengers. “No more phones! No more smoking! Nothing! The atmosphere got really really tense and threatening. And then came the huge waves,” he recalled.