Threat of ISIL Militants Crossing Mediterranean With Migrants Exaggerated

Islamic State (IS) militants are unlikely to cross the Mediterranean Sea posing as refugees, and media hysteria around this issue is exaggerated, Andrea Torre, director of the independent research center on migration, told Sputnik on Monday.

MOSCOW (Sputnik), Anastasia Levchenko — On Sunday, Libyan government adviser Abdul Basit Haroun told the BBC that ISIL militants are being smuggled into Europe on boats carrying refugees across the Mediterranean. He added that the IS group is allowing human traffickers to operate in North Africa under their control in exchange for half of the smugglers' income.

"There was much talk in the Italian media about the possibility that the ISIS [IS] militant group could have any relation to migrants crossing the Channel of Sicily on boats. Honestly I think the issue is unlikely," Andrea Torre, director of the Italian Centro Studi Medi Migrazioni nel Mediterraneo (Migration in the Mediterranean) told Sputnik.

Torre explained that it is not rational on the part of the militant group to put well-trained fighters at risk of drowning by placing them on the boats with migrants.

Moreover, "they are all subject to approval procedures (fingerprinting)," Torre added.

The director of the research center also claimed that Italian police share a similar opinion to him on this matter.

Europe is currently struggling with a spike in uncontrolled migration from Africa. The Mediterranean Sea is one of the main routes for migrants fleeing conflict zones trying to reach Europe.

According to the United Nations, some 60,000 people have tried to cross the Mediterranean this year.