Thread: German police stop truck with 51 migrants squeezed inside

German police stop truck with 51 migrants squeezed inside

Saturday, September 16th 2017, 3:19 pm CEDTSaturday, September 16th 2017, 3:20 pm CEDT

BERLIN (AP) - German police say they have stopped a truck near the German-Polish border with 51 people squeezed inside, among them 17 children.

Federal police say the truck was stopped early Saturday on the highway A12 near the eastern German town of Muellrose.

Police said some of the people inside were dehydrated and all were thirsty and hungry. They were taken to the nearby town of Frankfurt an der Oder where they received food, drinks and medical care. According to first findings, most of the people are from Iraq.

Police said the 46-year-old Turkish driver was detained on suspicion of human trafficking. The truck was also registered in Turkey.

German Police Stop Truck With 51 Migrants Squeezed Inside - The ...

Disgusting. It's happening all over the world.

Migrants found by German police in back of truck go missing

Almost all of the 51 Iraqi refugees found in the back of a truck in the German town of Eisenhüttenstadt on Saturday have gone missing. Officials are waiting to see if the refugees register at another reception center.



The missing Iraqi migrants were most likely picked up in Eisenhüttenstadt and driven away by relatives already living in Germany, said Frank Nürnberger, head of the town's reception facility, speaking with Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg.

While it remains unclear when exactly the refugees left the facility, unconfirmed reports stated that a number of people got into cars with license plates registered in Bielefeld.

Read more: German police find 51 migrants in Turkish truck

Two of the migrants found in the back of the truck reportedly stayed at the facility.

On Saturday, German police found 51 migrants, including 17 children, crammed inside the back of a Turkish truck on the border with

Poland. Officers described the "harrowing image" from inside the truck, where all the travelers were thirsty and hungry, with some showing signs of dehydration. They were all taken to the Eisenhüttenstadt facility, while the truck's driver, a 46-year-old Turkish citizen, was detained.

Investigators said they believe Saturday's discovery was part of a large smuggling ring operating along the German-Polish border region and that they were probing potential links to other smuggling incidents.

Just days earlier, police took 40 Iraqi refugees into custody after they had unlawfully entered Germany across the Polish border.

Despite tougher border controls along the so-called Balkan route, many migrants are still attempting to enter and seek asylum in Germany and other west European countries.

Smugglers based in the Balkans or Turkey often charge thousands of euros for the trip, forcing people to travel in overcrowded and often unreliable vehicles.

Read more: Combating human traffickers - facts and questions

According to the federal police, this year alone some 2,600 migrants have been smuggled across Germany's border with the Czech Republic, and a further 1,400 over the border with Poland. Despite the high numbers, authorities maintain there has not been a rise in the number of migrants being smuggled into Germany since Chancellor Angela Merkel's decision to effectively tolerate the arrival of hundreds of thousands of refugees in 2015. However, there has not been news of a reduction in the smuggling numbers, either.

Saturday's discovery was reminiscent of a disturbing incident in Austria during the height of the migrant crisis two years ago, when authorities uncovered the dead bodies of 71 migrants inside an abandoned freezer truck. The refugees are believed to have suffocated as they were being smuggled into Western Europe.

Migrants found by German police in back of truck go missing | News ...