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IMMIGRATION

200 migrants stranded on road and rail tracks

Update: Police in Lower Austria found almost 200 migrants dangerously stranded on a motorway in the district of Mödling early on Thursday, and 12 people walking along a railway line in Melk.

200 migrants stranded on road and rail tracks

On the A21 Vienna ring road a group of 80 migrants were spotted walking along the road at around 8:00 am and risking their lives by attempting to cross it during heavy traffic.

Police spokesman Johann Baumschlager said that they are likely to have been abandoned by people smugglers.

Another group of 60 migrants were found near the same area, and later on Thursday a group of 20.

They are currently being questioned by police. It's believed they were abandoned in the Schwechat area on the S1 road.

Officers also received a call at around 5am that several people had been spotted walking along the train tracks near to Gross-Sierning, St Pölten, but were unable to find them.

At 6.15 am they received another call from Austrian Railways that the group had reached Loosdorf in Melk.

Baumschlager told the ORF broadcaster that the railway line was closed between 6:20 and 6:55, with some delays to train services. Police apprehended 12 people, including 11 Pakistanis and one Indian man, who had made their way into Austria illegally.

In the last few weeks large groups of migrants have been found abandoned in Lower Austria and Baumschlager said it was proving to be a “logistical challenge” for local police who have to be constantly on the lookout around Marchegg, St. Pölten, Bad Deutsch-Altenburg and Schwechat. 

Austria is on the main migrant land route into Europe, with thousands
passing through the country after crossing into the European Union over the
Serbia-Hungarian border.

Groups of migrants are now stopped almost daily after crossing into Austria.

 

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.

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