The migrants, who claimed to be Syrian citizens, could not provide any documents verifying their identity and legal status.Continue reading
Serbian police round up illegal migrants just south of the Hungarian borders
Three people were killed and eleven injured in an accident near Bócsa, 120 kilometers south from the capital, on Friday morning.
According to local police, a Georgian national was trying to smuggle fifteen people across the country towards Western Europe in a car. A police patrol tried to stop the vehicle, but he drove on without stopping.
The man driving the car did not slow down when he reached a main intersection, did not give way and collided with another car. On arrival at the scene, the patrol officer found the vehicles overturned in the ditch; the cars were on fire as a result of the collision.
Two of the border-crossers died at the scene, they were burned inside the vehicle. Twelve of the injured occupants of the two cars were taken to hospital, one of whom later died.
The Georgian driver was investigated by the county police for human smuggling and for causing of a road accident with a fatality, police said.
Hungary is the only serious obstacle that migrant smugglers face when carrying their lucrative human cargo towards other EU member-states, and they will often try to evade capture when stopped by authorities. If caught, they face up to two and a half years in prison, then expulsion. There were a number of fatal accidents involving organized smuggling gangs, and violence is rising on the southern borders of Hungary, where competing gangs are known to have used firearms to settle score among one another.
Featured Image: MTI/AP/Serbian Ministry of Interior