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14. 10. 09. - 16:00

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14. 10. 09. - 16:00

People smuggling masterminds arrested

By David Rogers

Two men have been arrested for people smuggling after 64 Kurds were found in the back of a lorry in Styria.

Graz police said today (Weds) two men, an Austrian and a Turk, which they had detained this morning (Weds) were the masterminds of the people smuggling operation.

The pair had organised for the Kurds, who were discovered in the back of a lorry last Friday night on the southern motorway (A2) near Zöbern in Styria’s Neunkirchen district, to travel from Turkey to Germany. Police arrested three Turks on the truck at the time.

Federal Crime Office (BK) spokesman said the two men would be charged with "human smuggling and membership of a criminal organisation."

The Interior Ministry said yesterday the smuggled Kurds, who had been taken to the refugee camp in Traiskirchen, Lower Austria, after applying for asylum, had all disappeared and probably gone underground, possibly to continue their journey to Germany.

The ministry said the Kurds had disappeared from the camp by Sunday evening, adding they would lose the right to state assistance and the processing of their asylum applications would be stopped if they failed to reappear at the camp by yesterday evening. They did not return to the camp.

The ministry added that around 200 asylum applicants disappeared from the camp every month. Migrants there are free to come and go at will but must show up for periodic roll-calls announced in advance if they are to continue to receive state aid and to have their asylum applications processed.

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