Italy, Hungary, England arrest suspected human traffickers

Authorities in Hungary and Italy have made arrests in the deaths of scores of migrants and refugees this week, including 71 whose bodies were found in an abandoned truck in Austria. Those who died in Austria's A4-Motorway between Parndorf and Vienna – most likely fleeing war-ravaged Syria – probably suffocated inside the truck abandoned on a highway, authorities said on Friday. Sixty of the 71 victims were men. Eight women died, as did three children, ages 2, 3 and 8. Italian police also arrested a number of people for their suspected link to Thursday’s futile attempt to smuggle a large number of migrants by two boats from north Africa to Europe. The two migrants’ boats carrying around 500, sank in the Mediterranean Sea off a Libyan city. About 100 people of the two boats died in the accident. Hungarian police said they had arrested three Bulgarian citizens and an Afghan citizen in connection with the truck. On Friday, Hungarian police said they had arrested a Romanian man who flipped a van carrying 18 refugees. In Surrey, England, authorities said they arrested 27 people suspected of illegally entering the country found in a suspicious truck at a gas station. The driver was also arrested. News of the deaths comes as Europe is struggling to deal with a record swell of migrants and refugees travelling by land and sea to find a better life or escape conflict at home in the Middle East and Africa, according to CNN and Straits Times.
- biplab