European police break up jet-setting migrant smuggling route

ROME (AP) — Police in Italy and Belgium have arrested five people accused of smuggling migrants carrying fake diplomatic passports into Europe aboard luxury jets. Italian police said Thursday that migrants paid up to 10,000 euros (dollars) each to be flown from Turkey aboard jets fraudulently booked for diplomats between October and December 2020. The migrants were mostly Kurds or Iraqi citizens carrying counterfeit diplomatic documents from St. Kitts & Nevis. Flight plans indicated the Caribbean nation as the final destination after layovers in Europe. Once they arrived in Europe, however, the passengers declared their real nationalities and requested asylum.