An Italian prosecutor has evidence of phone calls between Libyan people smugglers and aid groups operating rescue boats, he told newspaper La Stampa, amid growing criticism of non-governmental groups saving refugees off the Libyan coast. La Stampa reported that prosecutors were looking into whether some of the newly-established NGOs involved in rescue operations may be financed by the traffickers themselves as a way of making it easier to guarantee their human cargoes would get to Italy. “We do not yet know if and how we could use this evidence in court, but we are quite certain about what we say; telephone calls from Libya to certain NGOs, lamps that illuminate the route to these organisations’ boats, boats that suddenly turn off their (locating) transponders, are ascertained facts.”

Zuccaro is the head of a five-strong pool of prosecutors in charge of investigating all the legal aspects of the migrant crisis, from trafficking to illegal exploitation of migrant labour on Italian farms and rackets in the provision of reception facilities. In response, Chris Catrambone, who co-founded the Migrant Offshore Aid Station NGO to rescue migrants, told the Reuters news agency that “more would die if we weren’t there”.
An Italian prosecutor says there are "telephone calls" between people smugglers in Libya and some non-governmental organizations. Frontex, the European Border and Coast Guard Agency, says the practices amount to a "taxi service". One NGO says "more would die" if they were not there.