Truck found with dead migrants on Austrian motorway

Budapest, August 27 (MTI) – Government office chief Janos Lazar has confirmed that the truck found abandoned on an Austrian motorway with dead migrants inside had Hungarian number plates.

Austria’s police force has contacted its Hungarian counterpart and the two are working together to track down whoever is responsible for the migrants’ deaths, Lazar said told a regular government press conference on Thursday. He said it was likely that the victims were heading west with the help of Hungarians. The development further illustrates how the migrant crisis has worsened over the past weeks, the government office chief said.

Earlier on Thursday Austrian news agency APA reported that at least 20 migrants were found dead in a truck abandoned on Austria’s A4 motorway leading from the Hungarian border, citing Hans Peter Doskozil, the police chief of Burgenland province.

“This tragedy concerns us all,” Johanna Mikl-Leitner, Austria’s minister of interior, said, referring to the incident. “Human smugglers are criminals. Anyone who still thinks they are the humble helpers of refugees cannot be helped,” she said.

APA said the truck was discovered on Thursday morning by the motorway’s operators. The A4 motorway, which leads to Vienna, also connects to Hungary’s M1 motorway.

Lazar said that a Romanian citizen had bought the van from a Slovak company and applied for the number plate in Kecskemet, in southern Hungary. A detailed briefing by police will be forthcoming, he said.

The minister said that the government, based on events of the past 48 hours, considers that the army will be needed for defence of the border. Codification work to ensure the necessary legal conditions required for this measure is taking place, he added.