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Police officer in Austria (archive picture): In the current year around 330 people were arrested under suspicion of being a smuggler
Photo:
Gert Eggenberger / APA / dpa
According to the Austrian police, a network of smugglers brought more than 700 people into the country illegally.
Most of them made their way to Germany, said a police spokesman in St. Pölten in Lower Austria.
Within a few days, 15 suspected smugglers were arrested who had transported people from Syria, Lebanon and Egypt.
According to the investigators, the smuggling operation was broken up after a transport of 200 to 300 people with a total of 25 vehicles set off from the Serbian-Hungarian border on November 16.
The route led through Slovakia and the Czech Republic to Lower Austria, where 14 vehicles were seized.
The drivers had been recruited in Moldova, Ukraine and Uzbekistan with monthly wages of up to 3000 euros.
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Of the hundreds of migrants, around one in three applied for asylum in Austria, police spokesman Johann Baumschlager told the dpa news agency.
The other two thirds have probably traveled to Germany.
The people who were apprehended said they had planned to get to Germany themselves.
In the current year, more than 330 people were arrested in Austria under suspicion of being a smuggler.
asa / dpa