A people smuggler has allegedly bragged to an undercover Italian journalist that he is in contact with migrant taxi NGOs operating in the Mediterranean Sea after being asked about his services.

An undercover Italian journalist pretending to be an illegal immigrant contacted the alleged people smuggler requesting information on organising an illegal crossing of the Mediterranean to Italy by boat.

According to the undercover reporter, the smuggler not only admitted to being in contact with migrant taxi NGOs but bragged about it, reassuring that he has “agreements” with the NGOs saying, “We are in contact, God willing everything will be fine,” the newspaper Il Giornale reports.

While the alleged smuggler claimed to be in contact with migrant taxi NGOs, he did not specify which NGOs, in particular, he was able to contact. Of course, he may have been lying simply to convince prospective “customers” to hand over cash for the dangerous trip.

The strategy would back up claims previously made by the European Union border agency Frontex in 2017, which stated that the presence of migrant taxi NGOs in the Mediterranean Sea acted as a “pull factor” that encouraged migrants to attempt to cross the sea.

Fabrice Leggeri, the former head of Frontex, also accused the NGOs of working directly with people smugglers.

While many NGOs and others rejected the claims, Leggeri has not been the only one to make such allegations toward NGOs in recent years.

In 2017, Italian authorities also released alleged evidence that claimed to show a German migrant taxi NGO named Jugend Rettet, and its ship the Iuventa, directly working with smugglers.

“The evidence is serious. We have evidence of encounters between smugglers who have accompanied illegal immigrants to the ‘Iuventa’, and members of the crew,” Prosecutor Ambrogio Cartosio said at the time.

Several years later in 2020, the German Joint Analysis and Strategy Centre for Illegal Migration (Gasim) reported that smugglers were tracking migrant taxi ships using applications and websites to determine their location and allegedly also made contact with the ships.

While migrant taxi NGO activity declined in 2018 and 2019 when populist Matteo Salvini served as Interior Minister and enacted decrees banning them from Italian ports, their activity this year has surged, with their vessels dropping off at least 10,000 migrants in Italy this year.

New Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi, who serves in the cabinet of conservative Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, vowed to take on the NGOs last month and has sought to revive the Salvini decrees.

Follow Chris Tomlinson on Twitter at @TomlinsonCJ or email at ctomlinson(at)breitbart.com.