Police were last night searching for the driver of an articulated lorry who dumped the bodies of six illegal immigrants, almost certainly Iraqi Kurds, on a ring-road outside Foggia, in Puglia, southern Italy, early yesterday.
A motorist on his way to work at around 7 a.m. spotted five of the bodies dumped one on top of the other on the tarmac in the middle of the road.
When police arrived, they found a sixth at the side of the road.
Initial medical examinations showed the six died from asphyxiation, probably around midnight on Tuesday, and almost certainly from having been locked up in a cargo container. The victims, all male, were half-naked and badly bruised.
Medical examination concluded, that the bruises had all been incurred after the men had died, probably when the bodies were dumped on the road.
That theory appeared to be confirmed by the discovery that the head of one of the immigrants was badly crushed, having apparently been driven over by the lorry as it made a getaway.
Tyre marks left no doubt that the bodies had been dropped from the container of an articulated truck.
The discovery of a Greek residence permit on one body also appeared to confirm initial police speculation that the six illegal immigrants were Iraqi Kurds who had travelled from Iraq via Turkey and then Greece.
Cotton fluff found on the bodies would suggest the immigrants were travelling in a container transporting cotton.
Yesterday's discovery is nothing new. On September 7th last year, four dead Asians, probably Indians, were found dumped by the roadside near Pegognage, outside Mantova, northern Italy.
Again, all four had died through asphyxiation, probably after being locked in a container than had entered Italy through the northern Adriatic port of Ancona.
Two months later, 14 Kurds, all illegal immigrants, were burned to death in a fire than broke out on a ferry travelling between Greece and Ancona on November 1st.
Police investigations have shown that immigrants pay up to £1,000 for a passage to Italy, a journey that can take up to six months and one usually organised by crime syndicates. Several Iraqi Kurds have told Italian police they made the first phase of their journey to Turkey, either by foot or on horseback.
Once in Turkey, the immigrants often have to go on a "waiting list" while agents find suitable lorries to take them, first to Greece and from there across the Adriatic to Italy.
If and when the illegal immigrants survive the ordeal, they are left by the roadside in Italy to seek political asylum with a view to eventually continuing their journey to northern European countries such as Germany.
Reuters adds: Italy's national police chief, Mr Gianni de Gennaro, has called for new technology and more co-operation with border guards in other countries to tighten the grip on illegal migration. A study by the Catholic charity Caritas estimated there are more than 1.5 million legal immigrants living in Italy, most in the industrial north. Many others stay in the country illegally and make their living in the black economy.