A left-wing Swiss politician has been arrested after attempting to smuggle four African migrants from Italy into Switzerland.
Lisa Bosia Mirra is the founder of a refugee aid organisation and a councillor for the Social Democratic Party of Switzerland – the second largest party in the Swiss parliament and the only left-wing party with representatives in the Swiss Federal Council.
Her people-trafficking operation was uncovered on the same day she was quoted in the Italian press denouncing Switzerland’s border policy and talking about her activist work in the region.
According to the prosecutor’s office, Ms. Mirra and an accomplice were caught on Thursday after driving four underage boys across the border in a van, reports 20Minuten.
Swiss police pulled them over at San Pietro di Stabio, shortly after they crossed the border, and arrested them. They’ve since been charged with aiding and abetting an illegal entrance.
On 31 August, on Facebook, Ms. Mirra claimed to have written a report on “violations” committed on the border.
“Violations begin from when they land and continue all along the path that these migrants and asylum seekers take, and to all intents and purposes, they must be reunited with their families,” she wrote.
The Swiss-Italian frontier has recently become a flashpoint in Europe’s on-going migrant crisis.
For many of the hundreds of thousands of recently arrived migrants in Italy, Switzerland is seen as route to the prosperous economies and generous welfare states of Northern Europe.
However, in July alone the Swiss Guard blocked more than 4,000 people from entering the country as they tried to control the flow.
Authorities recently announced they will build a migrant camp to house the rising numbers trapped on the border. The camp at Como in the north of Italy will house 300 people, and has sparked fears the site could turn into a new Calais.