Welcome back to the podcast, bribe, swindle, or steel.

I'm Alexandra Rogge, and today we're showcasing one of the two winners of the Trace Prize

for Investigative Reporting.

Mahmoud Al-Sopki, writing for the New Arab and A-R-I-J, was nominated and won for Syrian Shamwings and Haftar's Libyan

Army are complicit in smuggling of Europe-bound migrants. Shamwings reports on the role

a Syrian Airlines and a host of private travel agencies play in the dangerous, irregular migration

of refugees into Europe. In choosing the

Sham Wings report as a winner, the team of independent judges recognized not only the personal

risks undertaken by the journalists, but also the exemplary professionalism with which they

approach this challenging story. Their attention to detail, rigorous fact-checking, and riveting storytelling were

key factors in the awarding of this prize. Mahmoud, congratulations on winning the prize and thank you for

joining me. Hello, Alexandra. Thanks a lot. It's a great opportunity to speak with you again after

getting to this prize, which is a great honor for me.

Let me first extend my thanks and appreciation to a reach team, my colleagues,

Rassan, Munir Rwan, and my colleagues also from the new Arab, Andrea and Anas,

where they believed in the idea from the first beginning and even they were very enthusiastic about the importance

of the idea from the first beginning. So I would like to say thanks a lot to them.

Thank you for including them. Sham is the Levantine name for Syria, but Sham Wings has a nice

double meaning here. Can you tell the story behind your article for us? How did the scheme

first come to your attention? It takes us two years ago back to 2021, 2022, since Belarus

used the migrants from the Middle East, North Africa to its war against Europe.

Where I have conducted two investigations, and Chammerings Airlines were part of it.

...