C-295 da FAP em destaque na vigilancia à imigração ilegal e salvamento.
'Sea of death': On patrol with Europe's border agency in the Mediterranean
By Frederik Pleitgen, CNN
October 30, 2013 -- Updated 1057 GMT (1857 HKT)
Source: CNN
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
CNN goes on patrol with EU border agency surveiling Mediterranean for migrant boats
Thousands of migrants attempt to enter Europe illegally through Mediterranean each year
More than 300 migrants died in shipwreck near Italian island of Lampedusa in early October
Italian Coast Guard says there has been no let-up in number of migrant boats in 2013
Sicily, Italy (CNN) -- The Portuguese CASA 295 military plane lifts off from an airstrip in Sicily and roars into the skies above the Mediterranean, scouring the blue seas below for signs of life.
The state-of-the-art surveillance aircraft is flying for Frontex, the European Union's border patrol agency. Its mission isn't only to stop people from being smuggling onto the continent's southern shores -- it's to save lives.
The plane patrols the Mediterranean Sea south of Sicily, including the area around Lampedusa, an Italian island near the African coast that migrants have been trying to reach in often unseaworthy boats. In October more than 300 migrants died when their boat capsized near these shores, and Frontex is hoping to prevent that from happening again.
The Frontex crew took CNN along on a surveillance flight. Human trafficking in the region is big business, and we were not allowed to identify any of the mission's crew member for fear they could be targeted by gangs of smugglers.
"On the missions, every week we find three or four targets of interest," the aircraft's captain told CNN. "The main goal is to detect targets of interest that Frontex [give us the coordinates for] ... we go there and we check it out and then we transmit everything to Frontex."
Fishing boats are often targets of interest because they are sometimes used to smuggle people from Africa to Europe. Often those vessels will be old, rusty and overloaded with migrants as the traffickers try to maximize their profit per journey. In some cases, sailing ships have been used for people smuggling as well. On our flight the crew also spotted an abandoned rubber boat, which might have been left there by people who made it to shore in Europe.
The plane is outfitted with infrared sensors and a belly camera that can identify and track targets at great distances. The crew will look for vessels that have an unusually high number of people on board, but they're also checking to see whether a ship move strangely in the water -- a possible sign that it is overloaded with migrants under deck.
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http://edition.cnn.com/2013/10/30/world/europe/frontex-patrol-pleitgen/index.html