Kurdistan Observer

The criminal organisation, whose roots in Turkey stretched into Italy and across eastern and central Europe, offered would-be immigrants entry into the country for about 300 euros ($300) and provided them with false documents, police said.

The smuggling operation was organised by a group of Turks who accompanied mainly Kurdish immigrants into Italy and then helped them cross the borders into Europe, police said.

"With the potential profit involved the smugglers put aside language, religious and cultural barriers and worked together," police chief Maurizio Li Calzi told Reuters.

In the first six month of the year the smuggling had generated some 360,000 euros in Italy alone, Li Calzi said.

Police said 1,200 Kurds had entered Europe from Turkey via Italy since January, travelling either by boat or by truck.

"There were several sea and land routes to the Italian border from Istanbul," Li Calzi said. "They would vary them according to the police presence. Often the smugglers would make the immigrants walk across the borders through wooded areas so they would go undetected."

The operation involved close collaboration with the Turkish authorities, police said. Five Turks and three Kurds were among the 15 arrested and charged with promoting illegal immigration.

Police said they had seized false passports, visas and permits involved in the smuggling scam.

Immigrants would cross Italy's northern border with Slovenia near the town of Trieste, travel across the country towards the border with France and then onto other European countries.

Thousands of illegal immigrants enter Europe via Italy's long coastline each year, many of them risking their lives.

In July, Italy passed a tough new immigration bill aimed at strengthening border controls and making it more difficult for immigrants to get work permits.

On Wednesday British yachtsman Michael Wood was condemned by a Greek court to 10 years imprisonment for helping 72 illegal Syrian and Iraqi immigrants enter the country.