ON AUGUST 28th Austrian police said they had found 71 dead migrants in a refrigerated lorry. The bodies of 59 men, eight women and four children were discovered just inside Austria’s border with Hungary. The vehicle appears to have been abandoned on August 26th, but the decomposition of the bodies indicates that the migrants may have suffocated or died of thirst earlier than that. Torn lining inside the lorry’s interior suggests that some had battled, fruitlessly, to escape.
Beyond its immediate horror, the discovery highlights two worrying developments in Europe’s migrant crisis. The first is the increasing sophistication of people-smuggling organisations within Europe. Traffickers have long operated in Italy, helping migrants who have crossed the Mediterranean from North Africa to continue their journey northwards. But this year many more are entering Greece from Turkey and travelling up to Hungary and beyond via the Balkans; their numbers create demand for organised smuggling services. (Most are Syrian, as the migrants discovered in the lorry are presumed to be.) Four people have been arrested over the deaths, including the...Continue reading
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