Italy: The Mafia and the Migrants

People & Power investigates the Italian mafia's scams to profit from the plight of desperate migrants and refugees.

More than 600,000 migrants have arrived by boat in southern Italy over the past four years - seeking sanctuary from war, persecution and extreme poverty across the Mediterranean.

At first, most Italians were as tolerant and patient with the new arrivals as any other European might have been - or at least gave shrugging acceptance to their country's place in the front line of the refugee crisis.

But frustration at the continuing (if not declining) influx, the heavy burden it's believed to have placed on the country's struggling economy and anger at other European nations for not doing more to help, has seen public attitudes harden significantly.