Terrible memories of the Parndorf drama with 71 dead in a refrigerated truck in the summer of 2015 are awakened. Now a van with almost 30 refugees, penned in the cargo hold, drove across the green border near Siegendorf. The inmates, including women and children, barely had air to breathe.
The spacious meadow near the Puszta near Siegendorf in the Eisenstadt district is a new hotspot for illegal border crossings. This is proven by the current figures: In this area alone, eight tugs were caught in one month. As reported, on Tuesday a chauffeur with 15 Syrian refugees raced away in a Mercedes Vito from an army patrol. The Ukrainian and his Lithuanian accomplice in the escort vehicle were arrested: custody!
Hardly any air to breathe
The same route was used on Thursday morning by the next smuggler to bring refugees from Hungary over the green border to Austria. Almost 30 men, women and children were crammed into the hold of his white Peugeot Boxer van. They only had a few cubic meters of air to breathe.
Tugboat caught
The armed forces stopped the life-threatening transport at the Puszta. While soldiers from Tajikistan held the handlebars, the exhausted refugees took the chance to run into the forest and disappear. A large search operation with the help of a police helicopter was initiated.
The first refugees were soon found and taken to an initial reception center. They reported: “In Serbia we climbed over the border fence using a ladder. On the Hungarian side, smugglers have already been waiting for us. “