Pursuit with Tractor Ends in Serious Accident

A smuggler was arrested on the night of Monday after a traffic accident in Andau (district of Neusiedl am See) with a total of eleven injured. The Hungarian police had pursued the driver from Pakistan across the border, then he crashed into a building and was trapped in the car. Among the injured migrants were two girls, reported the Burgenland State Police Directorate.

Smuggler Crashed with Ten Refugees in Burgenland

The police officers wanted to stop the vehicle in Hungary, but the smuggler fled, lost control of the car, and crashed into an agricultural building. The vehicle contained ten refugees - men and women from Turkey and Afghanistan, and also two girls aged seven and ten. They were all injured and taken by rescue services to the AKH and the Donauspital in Vienna, as well as the hospital in Eisenstadt.

The severely injured smuggler had to be rescued from the wreck by the fire department and flown to the Wiener Neustadt hospital by rescue helicopter. He was arrested and is being monitored by the police in the hospital. Investigations are still ongoing, it was stated.

First Such Incident Since November 2024

The incident with the smuggler vehicle was the first in Burgenland since November 2024, police spokesman Helmut Marban told the APA. In 2023, there were several similar situations, after which the breakthroughs of smuggler vehicles at the border with "police pursuit" and illegal migration in general decreased. So far this year, around 2,500 refugees and four smugglers have been apprehended in Burgenland, according to Marban.

The Ministry of the Interior also stated that apprehensions in Burgenland have massively decreased in the past two years. As part of "Operation Fox," around 40 Austrian police officers are deployed on Hungarian territory to combat smuggling before it reaches the Burgenland border. However, the smugglers have still been instructed by their backers not to stop - "because the smuggled migrants are just goods that bring a lot of money to the criminals," emphasized Gerald Tatzgern, head of the Department for Smuggling, Human Trafficking, and Special Investigations at the Federal Criminal Police Office.

Warning of Burgenland as "Smuggler Hotspot"

SPÖ club chairman Roland Fürst warned in a statement that Burgenland could become a "smuggler hotspot" again. He called on Interior Minister Gerhard Karner (ÖVP) for "immediate measures and precautions," including an increase in police personnel in the border area and closer cooperation with Hungarian authorities.

FPÖ state parliament member Mario Jaksch spoke of a "symbol of a broken and dangerous EU policy" regarding migration and demanded the deportation of the smuggler. Asylum flows should be stopped before Hungary, he said.

(APA/Red)

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