Syrian migrants smuggled into Germany in car boot

Driver arrested near Austrian border on suspicion of keeping passengers in 'catastrophic conditions'

Three migrants from Syria were smuggled into Germany in a car boot. Photo: Federal Police Inspectorate Rosenheim

Three migrants from Syria were smuggled into Germany in a car boot, police have said, after the driver was arrested over the “catastrophic conditions” in the vehicle.

Four more Syrians were found crammed into the back seat when the car was stopped near the Austrian border. Passengers had been sick inside and border police opened the boot to find three men in the luggage area.

It is believed the passengers were picked up from Slovenia by a driver who did not have a valid licence. A 38-year-old, with papers from Latvia, was arrested on suspicion of smuggling foreigners into Germany under life-threatening conditions.

Police stopped the visibly overcrowded car on a major Munich-to-Berlin motorway and “as soon as the doors and boot were opened, the catastrophic conditions inside became clear”, they said.

Three of the Syrians were taken to refugee accommodation, while another four who did not request asylum were returned to Austria, a distinction being fiercely debated in German politics as voter anger over migration throws the government into crisis.

Germany began entry checks at all nine of its usually open Schengen land borders on Monday, as it responds to a spate of Islamist attacks and a historic victory for the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party in a state election in Thuringia.

The nationalists could score a second win on Sunday as voters elect a new parliament in Brandenburg, having named migration as their prime concern in pre-election polls. Like Thuringia, the state is in the AfD's heartland in Germany's former East.

“We cannot accept that the birth rate continues to fall in Germany while we offset it with people who are not compatible with our culture,” said one AfD candidate in Brandenburg, Wilko Moeller. “They can’t live here, most of the people who come here, the Afghans, the Tunisians, the Moroccans.”

Chancellor Olaf Scholz's centre-left government is exploring ways to deport failed asylum seekers to Syria for the first time since 2012. It plans to withhold benefits from refugees if EU law dictates another country should hear their case.

However, Germany has evaded opposition demands to turn away asylum seekers on the spot, citing legal concerns and the fact that neighbouring countries such as Austria and Poland would be reluctant to take them back in.

It is relying instead on the so-called Dublin procedure in which people are returned later to the first EU country they entered. This system failed in the case of an alleged Syrian knifeman who had dodged deportation to Bulgaria before three people were stabbed to death in Solingen in August.

“In Germany there is a right to asylum. People who apply for asylum at the border will have their application considered,” an Interior Ministry spokesman said on Friday.