‘Dark day’ as 50 migrants found dead in lorry in Austria

Forensic teams inspect the lorry where the bodies at least 20 migrants were found just off a motorway in Austria. Dieter Nagl / AFP Photo

VIENNA // As many as 50 refugees were found dead inside a lorry on a motorway in Austria, the latest tragedy involving people trying to reach Europe.

The vehicle, which contained between 20 and 50 partially decomposed bodies, was found in an emergency lane off the motorway near the border with Hungary.

“Today is a dark day. This tragedy affects us all deeply,” Austrian interior minister Johanna Mikl-Leitner said.

Hungary said the dead appeared to be victims of a people-trafficking operation and that it would join the Austrian investigation into the deaths.

A spokesman for Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orban said that the driver was Romanian, according to information received from Austrian police.

The lorry – which had Hungarian licence plates but bore the markings of Slovakian poultry firm Hyza – was apparently abandoned on Wednesday.

The vehicle’s back door had been left open.

The condition of the bodies in the hot weather made establishing the identity and exact number of dead difficult, but a police spokesman said the total number could be as many as 50.

“We cannot confirm yet how they died,” he added.

Austria’s Krone newspaper reported that initial indications suggested the refugees had suffocated.

Forensics teams at the scene said it would take several days to analyse evidence.

The vehicle was a white refrigeration lorry with images of food items on it.

Ms Mikl-Leitner said that Austria would tighten its border controls and intensify checks on international trains.

She also called on the other 27 member states of the European Union to show “zero tolerance” for people smugglers.

Austrian chancellor Werner Faymann said the deadly tragedy showed how critical it was for nations to work together on solutions to the influx of migrants.

“Today refugees lost the lives they had tried to save by escaping, but lost them in the hand of traffickers,” he said.

The EU’s commissioner for enlargement, Johannes Hahn, expressed similar sentiment, tweeting that the “terrible incident” showed “the urgent need for quick and determined common action”.

Meanwhile, Hungarian prime minister Mr Orban’s chief of staff, Janos Lazar, said that Austrian and Hungarian police “will work closely together to take the necessary steps to investigate what happened, and apprehend those responsible”.

Agrofert Holding, which owns poultry firm Hyza, said it sold the lorry in 2014.

The new owners did not remove the logos as required, and Hyza had nothing to do with the vehicle now, said the company, which is owned by Czech finance minister Andrej Babis.

The Hungarian government said the lorry’s licence number plates were registered by a Romanian citizen.

Record numbers of people tried to reach the EU this year as they flee conflicts in Africa, Asia and the Middle East.

In Austria, the number of asylum requests rose above 28,300 between January and June alone – as many as were recorded in all of last year.

* Agence France-Presse, with reporting by Associated Press