EUROPE-MIGRANTS/AUSTRIA NEWSER Austrian police believe refugees suffocated in truck, Bulgarian-Hungarian trafficker ring behind deaths

Record ID: 142229

  • Title: EUROPE-MIGRANTS/AUSTRIA NEWSER Austrian police believe refugees suffocated in truck, Bulgarian-Hungarian trafficker ring behind deaths
  • Date: 28th August 2015
  • Summary: EISENSTADT, AUSTRIA (AUGUST 29, 205) (REUTERS) ***WARNING CONTAINS FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY*** EISENSTADT POLICE SPOKESMAN HELMUT MARBAN TAKING SEAT AT NEWS CONFERENCE CAMERA (SOUNDBITE) (German) BURGENLAND POLICE CHIEF, HANS PETER DOSKOZIL, SAYING: "We have confirmed that the insulating layer on the sides of the truck did not allow any air to pass through. We can neither rule out nor confirm whether they made sure to provide air through the cooling system of the lorry or through the roof. I believe it is probable that the people in this lorry suffocated." JOURNALIST (SOUNDBITE) (German) BURGENLAND POLICE CHIEF, HANS PETER DOSKOZIL, SAYING: "We have verified that the vehicle set off in the early hours of Wednesday morning south of Budapest in Hungary, as we said yesterday. It was found yesterday in the Neusiedl-Parndorf area and almost certainly had been parked there for 24 hours." POLICE LOGO (SOUNDBITE) (German) BURGENLAND POLICE CHIEF, HANS PETER DOSKOZIL, SAYING: "The nationality of these people indicates that a Bulgarian-Hungarian trafficker ring is behind this case." (SOUNDBITE) (German) EISENSTADT POLICE SPOKESMAN, HELMUT MARBAN, SAYING: "Based on the findings of the investigation work carried out by the Burgenland criminal investigation office together with the Hungarian authorities, the public prosecutor of Eisenstadt issued European arrest warrants for four people overnight. There have already been arrests and several people are currently in custody in Hungary based on these warrants." NEWS CONFERENCE IN PROGRESS (SOUNDBITE) (German) AUSTRIAN INTERIOR MINISTER, JOHANNA MIKL-LEITNER, SAYING: "Austria does not intend to introduce stricter border controls." NEWS CONFERENCE IN PROGRESS (SOUNDBITE) (German) AUSTRIAN INTERIOR MINISTER, JOHANNA MIKL-LEITNER, SAYING: "I do not think border controls are the answer. Much more important is securing the EU's external border and setting up secure points of entry." JOURNALIST NEWS CONFERENCE ENDING
  • Embargoed: 12th September 2015 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Austria
  • Country: Austria
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA2JDELKLXSZCVUQTER8HDZXTPZ
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: 71 people, likely Syrian refugees, found dead in an abandoned truck in Austria probably suffocated to death, police said on Friday (August 28).
    "The insulating layer on the sides of the truck did not allow any air to pass through. We can neither rule out nor confirm whether they made sure to provide air through the cooling system of the lorry or through the roof. I believe it is probable that the people in this lorry suffocated," police chief Hans Peter Doskozil told reporters in Eisenstadt.
    Police made the grisly discovery in the 7.5-tonne truck stopped on the A4 motorway near the town of Parndorf on Thursday (August 27).
    "We have verified that the vehicle set off in the early hours of Wednesday morning south of Budapest in Hungary, as we said yesterday. It was found yesterday in the Neusiedl-Parndorf area and almost certainly had been parked there for 24 hours," Doskozil said.
    Three people are in custody in Hungary after European arrest warrants were issued, police said. One was Bulgarian-Lebanese, another Bulgarian and the third of Hungarian nationality.
    "The nationality of these people indicates that a Bulgarian-Hungarian trafficker ring is behind this case," Doskozil said.
    Thousands of people from countries like Afghanistan or Syria have fled through the Balkans to Austria, pushing the number of asylum requests to 28,300 in the first six months of this year - more than the total for all of 2014.
    Austria's Interior Minister Johanna Mikl-Leitner said the best way to handle the refugee crisis was to create legal pathways into Europe, rather than stricter border controls.
    "I do not think border controls are the answer. Much more important is securing the EU's external border and setting up secure points of entry," she said.
    The 28 member states of the European Union have not yet agreed on introducing binding quotas for the distribution of refugees. Leaders of the EU declared this week that it has "failed" in the face of human agony on its frontiers.
    Meanwhile, the U.N. refugee agency UNHCR said on Friday the number of refugees and migrants crossing the Mediterranean to reach Europe has passed 300,000 this year, up from 219,000 in the whole of 2014.
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