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REFUGEE CRISIS

IMMIGRATION

Forensic investigators begin to ID victims

Austrian forensic investigators have so far identified nine of the men and one of the women from the lorry in which 71 refugees lost their lives in August.

Forensic investigators begin to ID victims
Photo: APA

The lorry was discovered at the side of a road after it was abandoned by alleged people traffickers.

Those aboard had most likely died within minutes of being sealed inside the refrigerated lorry which crossed the border from Hungary into Austria.

Ten of those identified are believed to have originated from Iraq.  Some additional persons are likely to be identified soon after information is provided by relatives.

Gerald Pangl, a spokesman for Austrian police, told journalists that it may be weeks or even months before the names of the deceased are known.

“One has to take into account that DNA samples have to be obtained from [relatives in] countries such as Afghanistan.”

Much of the information for identification came from people who called a police hotline.

“Many of them said that they lost contact with their relatives on that day,” Pangl said.

Five people are being held in Hungary, and one man is being held in Bulgaria in connection with the case.

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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