This sort of thing is horrific. But remember, Chinese illegal immigrants have died in the holds of ships like this on their way to the U.S. Also, South of the Border illegal immigrants have been found dead in various trucks along the way too from either heat prostration, the drivers running from U.S. police or Border Patrol or other reasons. This sort of thing happens whenever people pay criminals to smuggle them into another country. So, what I'm saying is this happens around the world every day. They don't just drown in the ocean on leaky rafts or boats. They also die these ways too every day all over the world.
Refugee deaths will increase pressure for EU asylum agreement
| Irish Times | - |
When
an Austrian police patrol discovered the abandoned truck at 11.30 on
Thursday bodily fluids were leaking from the back door. The outer truck
wall, which was advertising sliced turkey, had bulges hammered from the
inside where refugees, trying to ...
Refugee deaths will increase pressure for EU asylum agreement
Tragedy in Austria is a warning for us to work to resolve the migrant crisis, says Merkel
Forensic
experts investigate a truck in which 50 refugees were found dead on the
road between Parndorf and Neusiedl in Austria. The driver has
disappeared, according to reports. Photograph: Roland Schlager/EPA
When an Austrian police patrol discovered
the abandoned truck at 11.30 on Thursday bodily fluids were leaking
from the back door.
The outer truck wall, which was advertising sliced
turkey, had bulges hammered from the inside where refugees, trying to
get to western Europe, had died a terrible, airless death in the dark.
When the police opened the truck door on the motorway
verge, they found bodies so badly decomposed that they couldn’t tell if
they were dealing with 20, 40 or 50 victims.
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Sometimes it takes a shocking event to transform
European apathy into action. Thursday’s gruesome discovery may be that
event: a Slovakian poultry truck with Hungarian licence plates abandoned
by a reportedly Romanian driver.
This was no faraway sinking of a refugee-laden boat,
but a white refrigeration truck in the heart of Europe, on the side of
the A4 near the Hungarian border in the Burgenland region.
An hour after the find, at a hastily convened press
conference, the shocked face of Austria’s national police director,
Hans-Peter Doskozil, spoke volumes about the truck’s contents.
Suffocation
After standing for at least a day on the side of the motorway, he said the truck would be driven to a nearby hall to allow postmortem examinations to begin.
“It’s 31 degrees, so time is of the essence,” said Johann Fuchs, a local state prosecutor.
Local media reports suggested suffocation was the
most likely cause of death and that the truck was one of 13 sold off
last year by the Slovakian company advertised on the side to a Hungarian
buyer.
Across the border in Hungary, the likely starting point of the truck, a spokesman for prime minister Viktor Orban said it appeared the victims were “illegal migrants in a human-trafficking operation”.
Within minutes news of the gruesome find had reached Vienna,
50km away, where Austrian and German politicians had gathered to
discuss the migrant crisis with leaders from western Balkan states.
Even before the discovery, Austrian and German
leaders were using the Vienna conference to warn their absent EU
colleagues that a handful of European countries were no longer able to
shoulder the burden.
Austrian foreign minister Sebastian Kurz said, without a fair and unified EU response, Vienna was mulling “much tighter border controls”.
“Austria has more migrants than Italy and Greece combined, so we shouldn’t pretend that only Italy and Greece are affected,” he said
In Austria, the number of asylum requests is about
30,000 so far this year, more than in all of 2014, with the final total
likely to reach 80,000.
Germany is expecting 10 times that number, almost double its original estimate.
Chancellor Angela Merkel said all conference participants were “shaken” by the the deaths of people seeking safety in western Europe.
“This is a warning for us to work to resolve this problem and show solidarity,” she said.
It’s another matter whether the warning will be heard.
At yesterday’s conference, the German leader repeated
that Berlin felt an obligation to help those in need, but was faced
with growing problems coping with 40 per cent of all those seeking
asylum in the EU.
Dr Merkel reiterated her demand for a system of
refugee-processing centres on the EU’s outer r borders, particularly in
Italy and Greece by year-end, and called for a “fair quota system” to
resettle refugees throughout all EU member states.
“We will see then who accepts and refuses,” she said.
‘Blame game’
As the tragedy unfurled, EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini called on leaders to end “the blame game” and “take responsibility” for the refugee crisis.
A European Commission
proposal from May for a compulsory refugee quota plan was awaiting
member state approval, she said, while the EU executive was almost
finished a common list of countries of safe origin to allow expedited
asylum applications.
“We cannot continue like this, with a minute of silence every time someone dies,” said Ms Mogherini.
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