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12. The results of the interviews conducted with the most active prosecutor’s offices: the phenomenon and its prevention12.2 I12.2 INFORMATION ON THE SMUGGLING OF MIGRANTSThe smuggling of migrants has increased exponentially in the past few years, andespecially in those border areas where it is easier to enter the country illegally.The prosecutor’s offices of Trieste, Gorizia and Tolmezzo in northern Italy – whichstand in the front line in the fight against smuggling – have seen exponentialincreases in their workloads. These areas are traversed by movements of illegalimmigrants, most of them heading for other destinations. For the prosecutor’soffices of Trieste and Gorizia, this phenomenon is mainly due to the topography ofthe province, which shares a border with Slovenia. The second-level bordercrossings and the natural frontier are obviously preferred to main roads andordinary border crossings. In the province of Gorizia alone there are at least ten ofthese secondary border points, which are unprotected, like pedestrian crossingsand usually without fences, and agricultural ones across farmland. In addition tothese are the crossing points along the Italian-Slovenian railway. This frontier ismainly used by traffickers from the Eastern European countries (Romania, Moldovaand also Bulgaria, Hungary, the Baltic countries and the Balkans), from South-EastAsia (China, Philippines, Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Afghanistan), and fromKurdistan (Turkey). There is a direct connection for the former group of countries,while for the others the route is more complex, comprising stopovers in EasternEuropean countries.In the south of Italy, the provinces of Brindisi, Lecce and Crotone are those mostaffected by smuggling, although proceedings for trafficking for the purpose ofexploitation have also been brought. In this case, too, the topography of the landexplains the phenomenon: long costal stretches are practically impossible to patroland are exploited by organized criminals. The trafficking takes place by sea,sometimes using the ferries which connect Albania, Turkey and Greece with thecoastal towns of Puglia. The area has long experienced illegal immigration fromthose countries, with methods that have changed over time: the large-scale andrelatively infrequent large scale landings of hundreds of non-EU nationals packedonto ramshackle medium-sized boats have now given way to small-scale landingsof 20 to 30 people from rubber dinghies. The people smuggled by these means aremainly from Albania or Kosovo, often destined for exploitation, but there are alsoAsians, Middle-Easterners, and especially Kurds. As regards these latter, theirlandings used to take place along the coasts of Calabria but have recently shifted toPuglia, although Calabria is still affected.Finally to be considered is the situation in large urban areas. The provinces of Milanand Rome, but also minor ones with airports and harbours, are destinations,though not always the final ones, for the smuggling of migrants along routesoriginating in such distant geographical areas as West Africa (Senegal), SouthAmerica (Ecuador, Peru) and South-East Asia (China, Philippines, Sri Lanka).It should be pointed out that it is possible to obtain a more complete and accuratepicture of smuggling when the prosecutor’s offices concerned have taken a globalinvestigative approach to criminal activities, acquiring information on all theirrelevant phases, rather than restricting their investigation to the illegal crossing ofnational borders. This approach, when it has been practicable, has led to the180