SHARE
COPY LINK

IMMIGRATION

Van with 21 migrants stopped at Italian border

Italian border police prevented a van from crossing the border from Austria after suspicions were raised that it was trafficking in migrants.

Van with 21 migrants stopped at Italian border
File photo: UNHCR

Alert police at the Italian-Austrian border crossing at Tarvisio noticed something unusual about a van that was attempting to cross the border into Italy, accompanied by a car.  

Inside the back of the delivery van were people from Eritrea, Somalia, Syria and Ethiopia.  The van contained a total of 21 people in crowded and inhumane conditions.

Because the presumed migrants were crossing from Austria, they were deported back for processing by the Austrian authorities, who will assess their claims for asylum, if they choose to make them.

Four Hungarians, including a 41-year-old father and his 21-year-old son, were arrested and transferred to a detention center in Udine, according to Friuli media.

Both of the vehicles have been confiscated.  Italian police have tightened their border controls in recent times to combat smuggling.

 

Member comments

Log in here to leave a comment.
Become a Member to leave a comment.

FAR-RIGHT

Germany issues entry ban to Austrian far-right activist Sellner

Radical Austrian nationalist Martin Sellner has been banned from entering Germany, it emerged on Tuesday, days after he was deported from Switzerland.

Germany issues entry ban to Austrian far-right activist Sellner

Sellner, a leader of Austria’s white pride Identitarian Movement, posted a video of himself on X, formerly Twitter, reading out a letter he said was from the city of Potsdam.

A spokeswoman for the city authorities confirmed to AFP that an EU citizen had been served with a “ban on their freedom of movement in Germany”.

The person can no longer enter or stay in Germany “with immediate effect” and could be stopped by police or deported if they try to enter the country, the spokeswoman said, declining to name the individual for privacy reasons.

READ ALSO: Who is Austria’s far-right figurehead banned across Europe?

“We have to show that the state is not powerless and will use its legitimate means,” Mike Schubert, the mayor of Potsdam, said in a statement.

Sellner caused an uproar in Germany after allegedly discussing the Identitarian concept of “remigration” with members of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) at a meeting in Potsdam in November.

Reports of the meeting sparked a huge wave of protests against the AfD, with tens of thousands of Germans attending demonstrations across the country.

READ ALSO:

Swiss police said Sunday they had prevented a hundred-strong far-right gathering due to be addressed by Sellner, adding that he had been arrested and deported.

The Saturday meeting had been organised by the far-right Junge Tat group, known for its anti-immigration and anti-Islamic views.

The group is also a proponent of the far-right white nationalist Great Replacement conspiracy theory espoused by Sellner’s Identitarian Movement.

SHOW COMMENTS