With the war in Ukraine, Austria is currently facing one of the largest refugee movements in recent European history. Millions of Ukrainians had to leave their country. “Today’s World Refugee Day should be used to address these major challenges,” Interior Minister Gerhard Karner (ÖVP) said Monday. The minister again points to the dirty business of the smugglers.
More than 76,000 war-displaced people from Ukraine have been registered in Austria in recent weeks and months. Of these, more than 70,000 people received ID cards. But many of them do not always come easily to our country. Locked up and without oxygen, people smugglers get them out of the war zone and across the borders.
“Drag them to Europe at the risk of their lives”
“They lure people into their clutches under completely false pretenses and drag them to Europe at the risk of their lives,” Karner says of the “dirty business of the traffickers”. “It advertises a right of residence for people from states where they are not likely to stay.”
The Ukraine crisis is currently mainly advertised to smugglers because it has never been so easy to get to Europe.
Hundreds of arrests in recent years
In 2020, 311 people smugglers were arrested, in 2021 there were already 441. In the first half of 2022, there were already more than 200 arrests.
“The asylum system must remain credible and credible. It must be available to those who really need it,” emphasizes the Minister of the Interior. “We have to thwart the smugglers’ plans.” For this reason, the Ministry of the Interior also established a specialized department in December 2021 to combat human smuggling and trafficking.
Important hub created
International cooperation is also necessary in the fight against human smuggling. Austria has been at the forefront of cooperation with the states of the Western Balkans for decades.” VIn particular, by establishing the Joint Operation Office – in which researchers from all over Europe work together – Austria has created an important hub for the investigations, Karner says.
Source: Krone
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