Austrian Police Find 24 Afghan Migrants Locked in a Van - nytimes

VIENNA — In the latest example of the callousness of Europe’s traffickers now preying on migrants surging across the Continent, the police here inAustria’s capital freed 24 Afghans, most of them teenagers, who were locked inside a van and barely avoided suffocation.

Police officials said Wednesday that the episode included a police chase through Vienna’s streets and a warning shot fired before officers caught the driver and discovered the cargo.

Officers noticed the vehicle, which had Romanian license plates, as part of increased patrols that began Sunday as part of a crackdown on human smuggling after 71 migrants — thought to be from the Middle East — were found dead in the back of an abandoned truck last Thursday on the main highway between Hungary and Austria.

Since then, thousands of migrants who are fleeing war in the Middle East and beyond have boarded trains to reach their goal, which is often asylum in Germany or Sweden. But others continue to risk inhumane treatment by smugglers as well as the chance of detention by the police, who have slowed traffic at Austria’s border with Hungary to inspect for human cargo.

The 24 Afghans, who were rescued early Tuesday, had been crammed into a space about 6 feet by 9 feet, and less than 6 feet high, said Thomas Keiblinger, a spokesman for the Vienna police.

The smugglers had welded shut a bolt on the back doors as well as a sliding door on the side, and had put bars on the back windows, Mr. Keiblinger said. The sole window between the driver’s seat and the back of the van had been blacked out and closed, he said.

“In effect, it was a jail cell,” said Mr. Keiblinger, who described photographs showing the Afghans, all ages 16 to 20, standing and kneeling in the van. “They had no air; it was basically a situation of life or death.”

He said the Afghans reported being herded into the vehicle by an accomplice of the driver. They did not say where this happened, but Mr. Keiblinger said it was most likely in Hungary, close to the border, which is about an hour’s drive from Vienna.

The police here became suspicious of the vehicle around midnight on Monday and began to chase the van. The van was forced off a highway and onto Vienna streets, where the driver eventually stopped and ran away, Mr. Keiblinger said.

The driver did not stop even after an officer fired a warning shot into the ground, Mr. Keiblinger said.  A police dog named Iceman picked up the driver’s scent and led officers to a shopping center where they arrested the suspect, described as a 30-year-old Romanian man.

Mr. Keiblinger indicated that the 24 Afghans would probably join the many migrants heading for Germany. They all declined to apply for asylum in Austria, he said, and were freed after the police gave them food and drink and questioned them. - Read More at NYT

Austrian Police Find 24 Afghan Migrants Locked in a Van

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